THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

SANTA  BARBARA 

COLLEGE 

PRESENTED  BY 

William  E.  Roberts 


''. 


TEE  CHICAGO  MANUAL  TUAINING  SCHOOL. 


MANUAL  TRAINING 


THE 


SOLUTION  OF  SOCIAL  AND  INDUSTRIAL  PROBLEMS 


BY  CHARLES  H.  HAM 


NEW  YORK 
HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  FRANKLIN  SQUARE 

1886 


Copyright,  1886,  by  HASPER  &  BROTHERS. 


All  rij/Mi  reiemd. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
SANTA  BARBARA  COLLEGE  LIBRARY 


69119 

C  ,> 

PREFACE. 


IN  1879  I  read  a  paper  before  the  Chicago  Philosophi- 
cal Society  on  the  subject  of  "  The  Inventive  Genius ;  or, 
an  Epitome  of  Human  Progress."  The  suggestion  of  the 
subject  came  from  Mr.  Charles  J.  Barnes,  to  whom  I  desire 
in  this  public  way  to  express  my  obligation  for  an  intro- 
duction to  a  profoundly  interesting  study,  and  one  which 
has  given  a  new  direction  to  all  my  thoughts. 

At  the  conclusion  of  my  labors  in  the  preparation  of 
the  paper,  I  realized  the  force  of  Bacon's  remark,  that 
"the  real  and  legitimate  goal  of  the  sciences  is  the  en- 
dowment of  human  life  with  new  inventions  and  riches." 

In  tracing  the  course-  of  invention  and  discovery,  I 
found  that  I  was  moving  in  the  line  of  the  progress  of 
civilization.  I  found  that  the  great  gulf  between  the 
savage  and  the  civilized  man  is  spanned  by  the  seven 
hand-tools — the  axe,  the  saw,  the  plane,  the  hammer,  the 
square,  the  chisel,  and  the  file — and  that  the  modern 
machine-shop  is  an  aggregation  of  these  tools  driven  by 
steam.  I  hence  came  to  regard  tools  as  the  great  civil- 
izing agency  of  the  world.  With  Carlyle  I  said,  "  Man 
without  tools  is  nothing;  with  tools  he  is  all."  From 
this  point  it  was  only  a  step  to  the  proposition  that(It  is 
through  the  arts  alone  that  all  branches  of  learning  find 
expression,  and  touch  human  life;  Then  I  said,  The  true 
definition  of  education  is  the  development  of  all  the  powers 
of  man  to  the  culminating  point  of  action ;  and  this  pow- 


iv  PREFACE. 

er  in  the  concrete,  the  power  to  do  some  useful  thing  for 
man — this  must  be  the  last  analysis  of  educational  truth. 

These  ideas  are  not  new.  They  pervade  Lord  Ba- 
con's writings,  are  admirably  formulated  in  Rousseau's 
"  Emile,"  and  were  restated  by  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  twen- 
ty-five years  ago.  More  than  this,  Comenius,  Pestalozzi,  and 
Froebel  attempted  to  carry  them  into  practical  operation 
in  the  school-room,  but  with  only  a  small  measure  of  suc- 
cess. It  remains  for  the  age  of  steel  to  show  how  pow- 
erless mere  words  are  in  the  presence  of  things,  and  so 
to  emphasize  the  demand  for  a  radical  reform  in  educa- 
tional methods. 

In  1880  my  attention  was  drawn  to  the  Manual  Train- 
ing Department  of  the  "Washington  University  of  St 
Louis,  Mo.  In  that  school  I  found  the  realization  of  Ba- 
con's aphorism,  "  Education  is  the  cultivation  of  a  just 
and  legitimate  familiarity  betwixt  the  mind  and  things." 
I  made  an  exhaustive  study  of  the  methods  of  the  St. 
Louis  school,  and  reached  the  conclusion  that  the  philos- 
opher's stone  in  education  had  been  discovered.  The  col- 
umns of  the  Chicago  Tribune  were  opened  to  me,  and 
I  wrote  constantly  on  the  subject  for  the  ensuing  three 
years.  Meantime  the  Chicago  Manual  Training  School 
(the  first  independent  institution  of  the  kind  in  the  world) 
was  founded  and  opened,  and  the  agitation  spread  over 
the  whole  country,  and  indeed  over  the  whole  civilized 
world. 

This  work  was  commenced  two  years  ago.  I  found 
the  labor  much  more  arduous  than  I  anticipated,  and  its 
completion  has  hence  been  delayed  far  beyond  the  time 
originally  contemplated  for  placing  it  in  the  hands  of  a 
publisher.  It  may  be  summarized  briefly  as  consisting 
of  four  divisions :  1.  A  detailed  description  of  the  vari- 


PREFACE.  V 

ous  laboratory  class  processes,  from  the  first  lesson  to  the 
last,  in  the  course  of  three  years.  2.  An  exhaustive  ar- 
gument a  posteriori  and  a  fortiori  in  support  of  the 
proposition  that  tool  practice  is  highly  pro  motive  of  in- 
tellectual growth,  and  in  a  still  greater  degree  of  the 
upbuilding  of  character.  3.  A  sketch  of  the  historical 
period,  showing  that  the  decay  of  civilization  and  the 
destruction  of  social  organisms  have  resulted  directly 
from  defects  in  methods  of  education.  4.  A  brief  sketch 
of  the  history  of  manual  training  as  an  educational  force. 

To  Dr.  John  D.  Runkle,  of  the  Massachusetts  Institute 
of  Technology,  the  founder  of  manual  training  as  an  ed- 
ucational institution  in  this  country,  I  cannot  express 
too  strongly  my  deep  obligation  for  valuable  suggestions 
and  constant  encouragement.  To  him  also  am  I  indebt- 
ed for  nearly  all  my  illustrations,  as  also  particularly  for 
the  excellent  portrait  of  M.  Victor  Delia  Vos,  the  found- 
er of  the  new  system  of  education  in  Russia.  I  am  also 
under  obligations  to  Col.  Augustus  Jacobson,  a  leading 
advocate  of  the  new  education,  for  constant  counsel  and 
support,  as  also  to  Dr.  Henry  II.  Belfield,  Director  of  the 
Chicago  Manual  Training  School,  and  Mr.  John  S.  Clark, 
of  Boston. 

Of  the  authors  consulted,  I  cannot  forbear  mention  of 
Lord  Bacon,  Rousseau,  and  Herbert  Spencer,  whose  great 
works  constitute  the  foundation  of  the  new  system  of  ed- 
ucation according  to  nature.  Nor  can  I  omit  to  acknowl- 
edge, with  all  the  emphasis  of  which  words  are  suscepti- 
ble, my  obligations  to  Mr.  Samuel  Smiles.  His  works* 
from  the  lives  of  the  engineers  to  the  shortest  of  his  bi- 
ographies, constitute  an  inexhaustible  treasure-house  of 
facts  from  which  I  have  drawn  without  stint.  Mr.  Smiles 
has  traced  the  springs  of  English  greatness  to  their  true 


vi  PREFACE. 

source,  the  workshop.  I  have  attempted  to  continue  his 
office  by  showing  that  the  workshop  is  a  great  education- 
al force,  and  hence  that  its  educational  element  ought  to 
be  incorporated  in  the  system  of  public  instruction. 

The  propositions  of  the  following  pages  involve  an  ed- 
ucational revolution  destined  to  enlighten,  and  so  ulti- 
mately to  redeem  manual  labor  from  the  scorn  of  the 
ages  of  slavery,  and,  in  the  end,  to  render  the  skilled  la- 
borer worthy  of  high  social  distinction,  thus  presenting 
at  once  a  solution  not  only  of  the  industrial  question  but 
of  the  social  question. 

CHARLES  H.  HAM. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 
THE  CHICAGO  MANUAL  TRAINING  SCHOOL. 

Its  Situation  on  the  Boulevard.— Its  Tall  Chimney.— The  Whir  of 
Machinery  and  Sound  of  the  Sledge-hammer. — The  School  that  is 
to  dignify  Labor.— The  Realization  of  the  Dream  of  Bacon,  Rous- 
seau, Comenius,  Pestalozzi,  and  Froebel.  —  Established  by  the 
Commercial  Club.— The  School  that  fitly  represents  the  Age  of 
Steel Page  1 

CHAPTER  II. 
THE  MAJESTY  OF  TOOLS. 

Tools  the  highest  Text -books — How  to  Use  them  the  Test  of 
Scholarship — They  are  the  Gauge  of  Civilization — Carlyle's  Apos- 
trophe to  them. — The  Typical  Hand-tools  — The  Automata  of  the 
Machine-shop. — Through  Tools  Science  and  Art  are  United. — The 
Power  of  Tools — Their  Educational  Value. — Without  Tools  Man 
is  Nothing ;  with  Tools  he  is  All. — It  is  through  the  Arts  alone 
that  Education  touches  Human  Life 7 

CHAPTER  in. 
THE  ENGINE-ROOM. 

The  Corliss  Engine— A  Thing  of  Grace  and  Power — The  Growth 
of  Two  Thousand  Years — From  Hero  to  Watt — Its  Duty  as  a 
School-master. — The  Interdependence  of  the  Ages. — The  School 
in  Epitome 14 

CHAPTER  IV. 
THE  DRAWING-ROOM. 

Twenty-four  Boys  bending  over  the  Drawing-board.— Analysis  and 
Synthesis  in  Drawing. — Geometric  Drawing. — Pictorial  Drawing. 
— The  Principles  of  Design. — The  ^Esthetic  in  Art.— The  Funda- 


viii  CONTENTS. 

mentals  —  Object  and  Constructive  Drawing. — Drawing  for  the 
Exercises  in  the  Laboratories. — The  Educational  Value  of  Draw- 
ing —  The  Language  of  Djawing. —  Every  Student  an  expert 
Draughtsman  at  the  end  of  the  Course Page  16 

CHAPTER  V. 
THE  CARPENTER'S  LABORATORY. 

The  Natural  History  of  the  Pine-tree  —  How  it  is  Converted  into 
Lumber,  what  it  is  Worth,  and  how  it  is  Consumed. — Where  the 
Students  get  Information.  — Working  Drawings  of  the  Lesson. — 
Asking  Questions. — The  Instructor  Executes  the  Lesson. — Instruc- 
tion in  the  Use  and  Care  of  Tools. — Twenty-four  Boys  Making 
Things — As  Busy  as  Bees. — The  Music  of  the  Laboratory. — The 
Self-reliance  of  the  Students 21 

CHAPTER  VI. 
THE  WOOD-TURNING  LABORATORY. 

A  Radical  Change — From  the  Square  to  the  Circle ;  from  Angles 
to  Spherical,  Cylindrical,  and  Eccentric  Forms. — The  Rhythm  of 
Mechanics. — The  Potter's  Wheel  of  the  Ancients  and  the  Turning- 
lathe — The  Speculation  of  Holtzapffels  on  its  Origin. — The  Greeks 
as  Turners. — The  Turners  of  the  Middle  Ages.— George  III.  at  the 
Lathe. — Maudslay's  Slide-rest,  and  the  Revolution  it  wrought. — 
The  Natural  History  of  Black  -  walnut. — The  Practical  Value  of 
Imagination — Disraeli's  Tribute  to  it;  Sir  Robert  Peel's  Want  of 
it. — The  Laboratory  animated  by  Steam. — The  Boys  at  the  Lathes 
— Their  Manly  Bearing. — The  Lesson 30 

CHAPTER  VII. 
THE  FOUNDING  LABORATORY. 

The  Iron  Age. — Iron  the  King  of  Metals. — Locke's  Apothegm. — The 
Moulder's  Art  is  Fundamental. — History  of  Founding. — Remains 
of  Bronze  Castings  in  Egypt,  Greece,  and  Assyria. — Layard's  Dis- 
coveries.— The  Greek  Sculptors.— The  Colossal  Statue  of  Apollo 
at  Rhodes. — The  Great  Bells  of  History. — Moulding  and  Casting 
a  Pulley. — Description  of  the  Process,  Step  by  Step. — The  Furnace 
Fire. — Pouring  the  Hot  Metal  into  the  Moulds. — A  Pen  Picture  of 
the  Laboratory. — Thus  were  the  Hundred  Gates  of  Babylon  cast. — 
Neglect  of  the  Practical  Arts  by  Herodotus.— How  Slavery  has 
degraded  Labor. — How  Manual  Training  is  to  dignify  it 45 


CONTENTS.  ix 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
THE  FORGING  LABORATORY. 

Twenty-four  manly-looking  Boys  with  Sledge-hammer  in  Hand — 
their  Muscle  and  Brawn. — The  Pride  of  Conscious  Strength. — 
The  Story  of  the  Origin  of  an  Empire. — The  Greater  Empire  of 
Mechanics. — The  Smelter  and  the  Smith  the  Bulwark  of  the  Brit- 
ish Government. — Coal— its  Modern  Aspects;  its  Early  History; 
Superstition  regarding  its  Use. — Dud.  Dudley  utilizes  "Pit-coal" 
for  Smelting — the  Story  of  his  Struggles ;  his  Imprisonment  and 
Death. — The  English  People  import  their  Pots  and  Kettles. — "  The 
Blast  is  on  and  the  Forge  Fire  sings." — The  Lesson,  first  on  the 
Black-board,  then  in  Red-hot  Iron  on  the  Anvil. — Striking  out  the 
Anvil  Chorus — the  Sparks  fly  whizzing  through  the  Air. — The 
Mythological  History  of  Iron.— The  Smith  in  Feudal  Times — His 
Versatility. — History  of  Damascus  Steel. — We  should  reverence 
the  early  Inventors. — The  Useful  Arts  finer  than  the  Fine  Arts. — 
The  Ancient  Smelter  and  Smith,  and  the  Students  in  the  Manual 
Training  School Page  58 

CHAPTER  IX. 
THE  MACHINE-TOOL  LABORATORY. 

The  Foundery  and  Smithy  are  Ancient,  the  Machine-tool  Shop  is  Mod- 
ern.— The  Giant,  Steam,  reduced  to  Servitude. — The  Iron  Lines  of 
Progress — They  converge  in  the  Shop ;  its  triumphs  from  the  Watch- 
spring  to  the  Locomotive. — The  Applications  of  Iron  in  Art  is  the 
Subject  of  Subjects. — The  Story  of  Invention  is  the  History  of 
Civilization. — The  Machine-maker  and  the  Tool-maker  are  the  best 
Friends  of  Man. — Watt's  Great  Conception  waited  for  Automatic 
Tools ;  their  Accuracy. — The  Hand- made  and  the  Machine-made 
Watch. — The  Elgin  (Illinois)  Watch  Factory. — The  Interdepen- 
dence of  the  Arts. — The  Making  of  a  Suit  of  Clothes. — The  Ante- 
room of  the  Machine-tool  Laboratory. — Chipping  and  Filing. — The 
File-cutter.— The  Poverty  of  Words  as  compared  with  Things. — 
The  Graduating  Project. — The  Vision  of  the  Instructor 78 

CHAPTER  X. 
MANUAL  AND  MENTAL  TRAINING  COMBINED. 

The  new  Education  is  all-sided  —  its  Effect. — A  Harmonious  Devel- 
opment of  the  Whole  Being. — Examination  for  Admission  to  the 
Chicago  School. — List  of  Questions  in  Arithmetic,  Geography,  and 

1* 


x  CONTENTS. 

Language.  —  The  Curriculum.  —  The  Alternation  of  Manual  and 
Mental  Exercises. — The  Demand  for  Scientific  Education  —  its 
Effect. — Ambition  to  be  useful Page  105 

CHAPTER  XI. 
THE  INTELLECTUAL  EFFECT  OF  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

Intelligence  is  the  Basis  of  Character. — The  more  Practical  the  In- 
telligence the  Higher  the  Development  of  Character. — The  use  of 
Tools  quickens  the  Intellect. — Making  Things  rouses  the  Attention, 
sharpens  the  Observation,  and  steadies  the  Judgment. — History 
of  Inventions  in  England,  1740-1840. — Poor,  Ignorant  Apprentices 
become  learned  Men.  —  Cort,  Huntsman,  Mushet,  Neilson,  Ste- 
phenson,  and  Watt. — The  Union  of  Books  and  Tools. — Results  at 
Rotterdam,  Holland;  at  Moscow,  Russia;  at  Komotau,  Bohemia; 
and  at  St.  Louis,  Mo. — The  Consideration  of  Overwhelming  Im- 
port   113 

CHAPTER  XII. 
THE  EDUCATION  OF  WOMEN  A  PRIME  NECESSITY. 

The  Difference  between  Ancient  and  Modern  Systems  of  Education. 
— Plato  Blinded  by  Half-truths. — No  place  in  the  present  order  of 
things  for  Dogmatisms. — Education  commences  at  Birth. — The  In- 
fluence of  Woman  extends  from  the  Cradle  to  the  Grave. — The 
Crime  of  Crimes — Neglect  to  educate  Woman. — The  Superiority 
of  Women  over  Men  as  Teachers — Froebel  discovered  it. — Nature 
designed  Woman  to  Teach  ;  hence  the  Importance  of  Fitting  her 
for  her  Highest  Destiny 123 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
THE  MORAL  EFFECT  OF  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

Mental  Impulses  are  often  Vicious ;  but  the  Exertion  of  Physical 
Power  in  the  Arts  is  always  Beneficent  —  hence  Manual  Training 
tends  to  correct  vicious  mental  Impulses.  —  Every  mental  Impres- 
sion produces  a  moral  Effect. — All  Training  is  Moral  as  well  as 
Mental. — Selfishness  is  total  Depravity;  but  Selfishness  has  been 
Deified  under  the  name  of  Prudence. — Napoleon  an  Example  of 
Selfishness. —  The  End  of  Selfishness  is  Disaster;  but  Prevailing 
Systems  of  Education  promote  Selfishness. — The  Modern  City  an 
Illustration  of  Selfishness. — The  Ancient  City. — Existing  Systems 
of  Education  Negatively  Wrong.— Manual  Training  supplies  the 
lacking  Element. — The  Objective  must  take  the  Place  of  the  Sub- 
jective in  Education.  —  Words  without  Acts  are  as  dead  as  Faith 
without  Works  . .  .130 


CONTENTS.  xi 

CHAPTER  XIY. 
THE  MIND  AND  THE  HAND. 

The  Mind  and  the  Hand  are  Allies  ;  the  Mind  speculates,  the  Hand 
tests  its  Speculations  in  Things. — The  Hand  explodes  the  Errors  of 
the  Mind — it  searches  after  Truth  and  finds  it  in  Things. — Mental 
Errors  are  subtile;  they  elude  us,  but  the  False  in  Things  stands  self- 
exposed.— The  Hand  is  the  Mind's  Moral  Rudder. — The  Organ  of 
Touch  the  most  Wonderful  of  the  Senses;  all  the  Others  are  Pas- 
sive; it  alone  is  Active. — Sir  Charles  Bell's  Discovery  of  a  "Muscular 
Sense." — Dr.  Henry  Maudsley  on  the  Muscular  Sense. — The  Hand 
influences  the  Brain. — Connected  Thought  impossible  without  Lan- 
guage, and  Language  dependent  upon  Objects;  and  all  Artificial 
Objects  are  the  Work  of  the  Hand. — Progress  is  therefore  the  Im- 
print of  the  Hand  upon  Matter  in  Art. — The  Hand  is  nearer  the 
Brain  than  are  the  Eye  and  the  Ear. — The  Marvellous  Works  of 
the  Hand Page  144 

CHAPTER  XV. 
THE  POWER  OF  THE  TRAINED  HAND. 

The  Legend  of  Adam  and  the  Stick  with  which  he  subdued  the  Ani- 
mals.— The  Stick  is  the  Symbol  of  Power,  and  only  the  Hand  can 
wield  it. — The  Hand  imprisons  Steam  and  Electricity,  and  keeps 
them  at  hard  Labor.— The  Destitution  of  England  Two  Hundred 
and  Fifty  Years  ago:  a  Pen  Picture. — The  Transformation  wrought 
by  the  Hand:  a  Pen  Picture. — It  is  due,  not  to  Men  who  make 
Laws,  but  to  Men  who  make  Things. — The  Scientist  and  the  In- 
ventor are  the  World's  Benefactors. — A  Parallel  between  the  Right 
Honorable  William  E.  Gladstone  and  Sir  Henry  Bessemer. — Mr. 
Gladstone  a  Man  of  Ideas,  Mr.  Bessemer  a  Man  of  Deeds. — The 
Value  of  the  latter's  Inventions. — Mr.  Gladstone  represents  the  Old 
Education,  Mr.  Bessemer  the  New 157 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE  INVENTORS,  CIVIL  ENGINEERS,  AND  MECHANICS 
OF  ENGLAND,  AND  ENGLISH  PROGRESS. 

A  Trade  is  better  than  a  Profession. — The  Railway,  Telegraph,  and 
Steamship  are  more  Potent  than  the  Lawyer,  Doctor,  and  Priest. — 
Book-makers  writing  the  Lives  of  the  Inventors  of  last  Century. — 
The  Workshop  to  be  the  Scene  of  the  Greatest  Triumphs  of  Man. 
— The  Civil  Engineers  of  England  the  Heroes  of  English  Progress. 


xii  CONTENTS. 

— The  Life  of  James  Brindley,  the  Canal-maker;  his  Struggles  and 
Poverty. — The  Roll  of  Honor. — Mr.  Gladstone's  Significant  Admis- 
sion that  English  Triumphs  in  Science  and  Art  were  won  without 
Government  Aid. — Disregarding  the  Common-sense  of  the  Savage, 
Legislators  have  chosen  to  learn  of  Plato,  who  declared  that  "The 
Useful  Arts  are  Degrading. " — How  Improvements  in  the  Arts  have 
been  met  by  Ignorant  Opposition. — The  Power  wielded  by  the 
Mechanic Page  170 

CHAPTER  XVII. 
POWER  OF  STEAM  AND   CONTEMPT  OF  ARTISANS. 

A  few  Million  People  now  wield  twice  as  much  Industrial  Power  as 
all  the  People  on  the  Globe  exerted  a  Hundred  Years  ago. — A 
Revolution  wrought,  not  by  the  Schools  and  Colleges,  but  by  the 
Mechanic. — The  Union  between  Science  and  Art  prevented  by  the 
Speculative  Philosophy  of  the  Middle  Ages. — Statesmen,  Lawyers, 
Litterateurs,  Poets,  and  Artists  more  highly  esteemed  than  Civil 
Engineers,  Mechanics,  and  Artisans. — The  Refugee  Artisan  a  Pow- 
er in  England,  the  Refugee  Politician  worthless. — Prejudice  against 
the  Artisan  Class  shown  by  Mr.  Galton  in  his  Work  on  "  Hereditary 
Genius." — The  Influence  of  Slavery:  it  has  lasted  Thousands  of 
Years,  and  still  Survives 184 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

AUTOMATIC  CONTRASTED  WITH  SCIENTIFIC 
EDUCATION. 

The  Past  tyrannizes  over  the  Present  by  Interposing  the  Stolid  Re- 
sistance of  Habit.  —  Habits  of  Thought  like  Habits  of  the  Body 
become  Automatic. —There  is  much  Freedom  of  Speech  but  very 
little  Freedom  of  Thought :  Habit,  Tradition,  and  Reverence  for 
Antiquity  forbid  it. — The  Schools  educate  Automatically. — A  glar- 
ing Defect  of  the  Schools  shown  by  Mr.  John  S.  Clark,  of  Boston. 
— The  Automatic  Character  of  the  Popular  System  of  Education 
shown  by  the  Quincy  (Mass.)  Experiment.  —  Several  Intelligent 
Opinions  to  the  same  Effect. — The  Public  Schools  as  an  Industrial 
Agency  a  Failure.  —  A  Conclusive  Evidence  of  the  Automatic 
and  Superficial  Character  of  prevailing  Methods  of  Education  in 
the  Schools  of  a  large  City. — The  Views  of  Colonel  Francis  W. 
Parker. —Scientific  Education  is  found  in  the  Kindergarten  and 
the  Manual  Training  School.  —  "The  Cultivation  of  Familiarity 
betwixt  the  Mind  and  Things." — Colonel  Augustus  Jacobson  on 
the  Effect  of  the  New  Education. .  .  191 


CONTENTS.  xiii 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

AUTOMATIC  CONTRASTED  WITH  SCIENTIFIC  EDU- 
CATION— Continued. 

The  Failure  of  Education  in  America  shown  by  Statistics  of  Rail- 
way and  Mercantile  Disasters.  —  Shrinkage  of  Railway  Values 
and  Failures  of  Merchants. —  Only  Three  Per  Cent,  of  those  en- 
tering Mercantile  Life  achieve  Success.  —  Business  Enterprises 
conducted  by  Guess  :  Cause,  Unscientific  Education.  —  Savage 
Training  is  better  because  Objective.  —  Mr.  Foley,  late  of  the 
Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology,  on  the  Scientific  Character 
of  Manual  Education  —  Prof.  Goss,  of  Purdue  University,  to  the 
same  Effect — also  Dr.  Belfield,  of  the  Chicago  Manual  Training 
School. — Students  love  the  Laboratory  Exercises. — Demoralizing 
Effect  of  Unscientific  Training. — The  Failure  of  Justice  and  Leg- 
islation as  contrasted  with  the  Success  of  Civil  Engineering  and 
Architecture Page  210 


CHAPTER  XX. 

AUTOMATIC  CONTRASTED  WITH  SCIENTIFIC  EDU- 
CATION— Continued. 

The  Training  of  the  Merchant,  the  Lawyer,  the  Judge,  and  the  Leg- 
islator contrasted  with  that  of  the  Artisan. — The  Training  of  the 
Merchant  makes  him  Selfish,  and  Selfishness  breeds  Dishonesty. — 
Professional  Men  become  Speculative  Philosophers,  and  test  their 
Speculations  by  Consciousness. — The  Artisan  forgets  Self  in  the 
Study  of  Things.— The  Search  after  Truth.— the  Story  of  Palissy. 
— The  Hero  is  the  Normal  Man ;  those  who  Marvel  at  his  Acts  are 
abnormally  Developed. — Savonarola  and  John  Brown. — The  New 
England  System  of  Education  contrasted  with  that  of  the  South.— 
American  Statesmanship — its  Failure  in  an  Educational  Point  of 
View. — Why  the  State  Provides  for  Education  ;  to  protect  Prop- 
erty.— The  British  Government  and  the  Land  Question. — The  Thor- 
oughness of  the  Training  given  by  Schools  of  Mechanic  Art  and  In- 
stitutes of  Technology  as  shown  in  Things. — Story  of  the  Emperor 
of  Germany  and  the  Needle-maker. — The  Iron  Bridge  lasts  a  Cen- 
tury, the  Act  of  the  Legislator  wears  out  in  a  Year. — The  Cause 
of  the  Failures  of  Justice  and  Legislation. — The  best  Law  is  the 
Act  that  Repeals  a  Law;  but  the  Act  of  the  Inventor  is  never  Re- 
pealed.— Things  the  Source  and  Issue  of  Ideas;  hence  the  Neces- 
sity of  Training  in  the  Arts 229 


xiv  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XXI. 
EDUCATION  AND  THE  SOCIAL  PROBLEM— HISTORIC. 

EGYPT  AND  GREECE. 

Fundamental  Propositions. — Selfishness  the  Source  of  Social  Evil ; 
Subjective  Education  the  Source  of  Selfishness  and  the  Cause  of 
Contempt  of  Labor;  and  Social  Disintegration  the  Result  of  Con- 
tempt of  Labor  and  the  Useful  Arts. — The  First  Class-distinction 
— the  Strongest  Man  ruled  ;  his  First  Rival,  the  Ingenious  Man. — 
Superstition. — The  Castes  of  India  and  Egypt — how  came  they 
about  ? — Egyptian  Education  based  on  Selfishness. — Rise  of  Egypt 
— her  Career ;  her  Fall ;  Analysis  thereof. — She  Typifies  all  the 
Early  Nations :  Force  and  Rapacity  above,  Chains  and  Slavery 
below. — Their  Education  consisted  of  Selfish  Maxims  for  the  Gov- 
ernment of  the  Many  by  the  Few,  and  Government  meant  the  Ap- 
propriation of  the  Products  of  Labor. — Analysis  of  Greek  Charac- 
ter— its  Savage  Characteristics. — Greek  Treachery  and  Cruelty. — 
Greek  Venality. — Her  Orators  accepted  Bribes. — Responsibility  of 
Greek  Education  and  Philosophy  for  the  Ruin  of  Greek  Civiliza- 
tion.— Rectitude  wholly  left  out  of  her  Scheme  of  Education. — 
Plato's  Contempt  of  Matter :  it  led  to  Contempt  of  Man  and  all 
his  Works. — Greek  Education  consisted  of  Rhetoric  and  Logic ;  all 
Useful  Things  were  hence  held  in  Contempt Page  247 

CHAPTER  XXII. 
EDUCATION  AND  THE  SOCIAL  PROBLEM— HISTORIC. 

ROME. 

Vigor  of  the  Early  Romans — their  Virtues  and  Vices ;  their  Rigorous 
Laws ;  their  Defective  Education ;  their  Contempt  of  Labor. — Slav- 
ery :  its  Horrors  and  Brutalizing  Influence. — Education  Confined 
to  the  Arts  of  Politics  and  War ;  it  transformed  Courage  into 
Cruelty,  and  Fortitude  into  Stoicism. — Robbery  and  Bribery. — The 
Vices  of  Greece  and  Carthage  imported  into  Rome. — Slaves  con- 
struct all  the  great  Public  Works ;  they  Revolt,  and  the  Legions 
Slaughter  them. — The  Gothic  Invasion.— Rome  Falls.— False  Phi- 
losophy and  Superficial  Education  promoted  Selfishness.— Deifica- 
tion of  Abstractions,  and  Scorn  of  Men  and  Things. — Universal 
Moral  Degradation.  —  Neglect  of  Honest  Men  and  Promotion  of 
Demagogues. — The  Decline  of  Morals  and  Growth  of  Literature. — 
Darwin's  Law  of  Reversion,  through  Selfishness,  to  Savagery. — 
Contest  between  the  Rich  and  the  Poor.  —  Logic,  Rhetoric,  and 
Ruin..  .  259 


CONTENTS.  xv 

CHAPTER  XXIH. 
EDUCATION  AND  THE  SOCIAL  PROBLEM— HISTORIC. 

THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 

The  Trinity  upon  which  Civilization  Rests:  Justice,  the  Arts  and 
Labor;  and  these  Depend  upon  Scientific  Education. — Reason  of 
the  Failure  of  Theodoric  and  Charlemagne  to  Reconstruct  the 
Pagan  Civilization. — Contempt  of  Man. — Serfdom. — The  Vices  of 
the  Time:  False  Philosophy,  an  Odious  Social  Caste,  and  Igno- 
rance.— The  Splendid  Career  of  the  Moors  in  Spain,  in  Contrast. — 
Effect  upon  Spain  of  the  Expulsion  of  the  Moors. — The  Repressive 
Force  of  Authority  and  the  Atrocious  Philosophy  of  Contempt  of 
Man. — The  Rule  of  Italy — a  Menace  and  a  Sneer. — The  work  of 
Regeneration. — The  Crusades. — The  Destruction  of  Feudalism. — 
The  Invention  of  Printing. — The  Discovery  of  America. — Investi- 
gation.— Discoveries  in  Science  and  Art Page  274 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 
EDUCATION  AND  THE  SOCIAL  PROBLEM— HISTORIC. 

EUROPE. 

The  Standing  Army  a  Legacy  of  Evil  from  the  Middle  Ages. — It  is 
the  Controlling  Feature  of  the  European  Situation. — Its  Collateral 
Evils:  Wars  and  Debts. — The  Debts  of  Europe  Represent  a  Series 
of  Colossal  Crimes  against  the  People ;  with  the  Armies  and  Na- 
vies they  Absorb  the  Bulk  of  the  Annual  Revenue. — The  People 
Fleeing  from  them. — They  Threaten  Bankruptcy ;  they  Prevent 
Education. — Germany,  the  best-educated  Nation  in  Europe,  losing 
most  by  Emigration. — Her  People  will  not  Endure  the  Standing 
Army. — The  Folly  of  the  European  International  Policy  of  Hate. 
— It  is  Possible  for  Europe  to  Restore  to  Productive  Employ- 
ments 3,000,000  of  men,  to  place  at  the  Disposal  of  her  Educators 
$700,000,000,  instead  of  $70,000,000  per  annum,  and  to  pay  her 
National  Debts  in  Fifty-four  Years,  simply  by  the  Disbandment 
of  her  Armies  and  Navies. — The  Armament  of  Europe  Stands  in 
the  Way  of  Universal  Education  and  of  Universal  Industrial  Pros- 
perity.— Standing  Armies  the  Last  Analysis  of  Selfishness ;  they 
are  Coeval  with  the  Revival  during  the  Middle  Ages  of  the  Greco- 
Roman  Subjective  Methods  of  Education.  —  They  must  go  out 
when  the  New  Education  comes  in 285 


xvi  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XXV. 
EDUCATION  AND  THE  SOCIAL  PROBLEM— HISTORIC. 

AMERICA. 

An  Old  Civilization  in  a  New  Country. — Old  Methods  in  a  New  Sys- 
tem of  Schools. — Sordid  Views  of  Education. — The  highest  Aim 
Money-getting. — Herbert  Spencer  on  the  English  Schools.— Same 
Defects  in  the  American  Schools. — Maxims  of  Selfishness. — The 
Cultivation  of  Avarice. — Political  Incongruities. — Negroes  escap- 
ing from  Slavery  called  Fugitives  from  Justice. — The  Results  of 
Subjective  Educational  Processes. — Climatic  Influences  alone  saved 
America  from  becoming  a  Slave  Empire. — Illiteracy. — Abnormal 
Growth  of  Cities. — Failure  of  Justice. — Defects  of  Education  shown 
in  Reckless  and  Corrupt  Legislation. — Waste  of  an  Empire  of  Pub- 
lic Land. — Henry  D.  Lloyd's  History  of  Congressional  Land  Grants. 
— The  Growth  and  Power  of  Corporations. — The  Origin  of  large 
Fortunes,  Speculations. — Old  Social  Forces  producing  old  Social 
Evils.  —  Still  America  is  the  Hope  of  the  World.  —  The  Right  of 
Suffrage  in  the  United  States  justifies  the  Sentiment  of  Patriotism. 
— Let  Suffrage  be  made  Intelligent  and  Virtuous,  and  all  Social 
Evils  will  yield  to  it;  and  all  the  Wealth  of  the  Country  is  subject 
to  the  Draft  of  the  Ballot  for  Education. — The  Hope  of  Social  Re- 
form depends  upon  a  complete  Educational  Revolution.  .Page  301 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 
HISTORY  OF  THE  MANUAL  ELEMENT  IN  EDUCATION. 

The  Kindergarten  and  the  Manual  Training  School  one  in  Principle. 
— Russia  solved  the  Problem  of  Tool  Instruction  by  Laboratory 
Processes. — The  Initiatory  Step  by  M.  Victor  Delia- Vos,  Director 
of  the  Imperial  Technical  School  of  Moscow  in  1868. — Statement 
of  Director  Delia- Vos  as  to  the  Origin,  Progress,  and  Results  of  the 
New  System  of  Training. — Its  Introduction  into  all  the  Technical 
Schools  of  Russia. — Dr.  John  D.  Runkle,  President  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Institute  of  Technology,  recommends  the  Russian  System 
in  1876,  and  it  is  adopted.  —  Statement  of  Dr.  Runkle  as  to  how 
he  was  led  to  the  adoption  of  the  Russian  System.^Dr.  Woodward, 
of  Washington  University,  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  establishes  the  second 
School  in  this  Country. — His  Historical  Note  in  the  Prospectus  of 
1882-83.— First  Class  graduated  1883.— Manual  Training  in  the 
Agricultural  Colleges— In  Boston,  in  New  Haven,  in  Baltimore,  in 
San  Francisco,  and  other  places. — Manual  Training  at  the  Meeting 
of  the  National  Educational  Association,  1884. — Kindergarten  and 


CONTENTS.  xvii 

Manual  Training  Exhibits.  —  Prof.  Felix  Adler's  School  in  New 
York  City — the  most  Comprehensive  School  in  the  "World. — The 
Chicago  Manual  Training  School  the  first  Independent  Institution 
of  the  Kind — its  Inception;  its  Incorporation;  its  Opening.  Its 
Director,  Dr.  Belfield. — His  Inaugural  Address. — Manual  Training 
in  the  Public  Schools  of  Philadelphia. — Manual  Training  in  twen- 
ty-four States. — Revolutionizing  a  Texas  College. — Local  Option 
Law  in  Massachusetts. — Department  of  Domestic  Economy  in  the 
Iowa  Agricultural  College. — Manual  Training  in  Tennessee,  in 
the  University  of  Michigan,  in  the  National  Educational  Asso- 
ciation, in  Ohio. — The  Toledo  School  for  both  Sexes. — The  Im- 
portance of  the  Education  of  "Woman.  —  The  Slojd  Schools  of 
Europe Page  322 


INDEX 365 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAOP. 

THE  CHICAGO  MANUAL  TRAINING  SCHOOL Frontispiece 

THE  LABORATORY  OF  CARPENTRY 23 

COURSE  IN  THE  LABORATORY  OF  CARPENTRY 27 

THE  WOOD-TURNING  LABORATORY 31 

COURSE  IN  THE  WOOD-TURNING  AND  PATTERN  LABORATORY.  .  41 

THE  FOUNDING  LABORATORY .' .  49 

COURSE  IN  THE  FOUNDING  LABORATORY 53 

THE  FORGING  LABORATORY 59 

COURSE  IN  THE  FORGING  LABORATORY 67 

THE  MACHINE-TOOL  LABORATORY 79 

THE  CHIPPING,  FILING,  AND  FITTING  LABORATORY 89 

COURSE  IN  THE  MACHINE-TOOL  LABORATORY 95 

THE  STUDENTS  WITH  THEIR  BOOKS 107 

M.  VICTOR  DELLA-VOS,  THE  FOUNDER  OF  MANUAL  TRAINING 
IN  RUSSIA 323 

DR.  JOHN  D.  RUNKLE,  THE  FOUNDER  OF  MANUAL  TRAINING 
IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  . .  .  329 


POWER. 

"His  tongue  was  framed  to  music, 
And  his  hand  was  armed  with  skitt; 
His  face  was  the  mould  of  beauty, 
And  his  heart  the  throne  of  will." 

EMERSON. 


MANUAL  TRAINING. 


CHAPTER  I. 
THE  CHICAGO  MANUAL  TRAINING  SCHOOL. 

Its  Situation  on  the  Boulevard.— Its  Tall  Chimney.— The  Whir  of 
Machinery  and  Sound  of  the  Sledge-hammer. — The  School  that  is 
to  dignify  Labor. — The  Realization  of  the  Dream  of  Bacon,  Rous- 
seau, Comenius,  Pestalozzi,  and  Frocbel. — Established  by  the  Com- 
mercial Club.— The  School  that  fitly  represents  the  Age  of  Steel. 

IN  a  conspicuous  place  on  the  principal  boulevard  in 
the  city  of  Chicago  is  situated  the  fine  brick  building,  a 
picture  of  which  constitutes  the  frontispiece  of  this  book. 
It  occupies  an  angle  formed  by  the  intersection  of  two 
streets,  and  consists  of  four  stories  and  basement.  All 
the  walls  are  thickly  pierced  with  windows,  affording 
abundant  light  for  the  interior,  and  a  tall  chimney  rises 
above  the  roof.  Smoke  issues  from  the  chimney-stack, 
and  the  hum  and  whir  of  machinery  is  heard,  and  the 
heavy  thud  of  the  sledge-hammer  resounding  on  the  an- 
vil smites  the  ear.  Up  and  down  the  boulevard,  as  far 
as  the  eye  can  reach,  stretch  miles  of  brick,  stone,  and 
marble  dwellings;  and  to  the  north-east,  through  the 
branches  of  wide-spreading  elms,  there  is  a  view  of  the 
great  inland  sea  on  whose  bosom  floats  the  commerce  of 
an  empire. 

Has  the  secret  of  making  diamonds  been  discovered, 
and  is  this  the  inventor's  factory  ? 


2  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

No.  This  is  a  school ;  the  school  of  the  future ;  the 
school  that  is  to  dignify  labor ;  the  school  that  is  to  gen- 
erate power ;  the  school  where  every  sound  contributes 
to  the  harmony  of  development,  where  the  brain  informs 
the  muscle,  where  thought  directs  every  blow,  where  the 
mind,  the  eye,  and  the  hand  constitute  an  invincible 
triple  alliance.  This  is  the  school  that  Locke  dreamed 
of,  that  Bacon  wished  for,  that  Rousseau  described,  and 
that  Comenius,  Pestalozzi,  and  Froebel  struggled  in  vain 
to  establish. 

It  is,  then,  a  diamond  factory  after  all.  For  if  it  be, 
as  claimed,  the  true  school,  it  is  destined  to  lift  the  veil 
from  the  face  of  Nature,  to  reveal  her  most  precious 
secrets,  and  to  divert  to  man's  use  all  her  treasures. 

Yes;  it  is  to  other  schools  what  the  diamond  is  to 
other  precious  stones — the  last  analysis  of  educational 
thought.  It  is  the  philosopher's  stone  in  education ;  the 
incarnated  dream  of  the  alchemist,  which  dissolved  earth, 
air,  and  water  into  their  original  elements,  and  recom- 
bined  them  to  compass  man's  immortality.  Through  it 
that  which  has  hitherto  been  impossible  is  to  be  rendered 
possible. 

Is  it  a  public  school  ? 

Yes  and  no.  Yes  in  this  sense — that  it  is  founded  for 
the  public  benefit;  no  in  this  sense — that  it  is  not  sup- 
ported from  the  public  revenue.  It  is  placed  conspicu- 
ously and  amid  pleasant  surroundings,  that  it  may  be  in 
the  public  eye  a  living  fountain  whence  the  propaganda 
of  the  new  educational  evangel  shall  promulgate  its  doc- 
trines and  send  forth  its  missionaries. 

Who  established  it  ? 

The  Commercial  Club,  an  association  consisting  of  six- 
ty Chicago  merchants.  Their  purpose  in  founding  the 


THE  CHICAGO   MANUAL  TKAINING  SCHOOL.  3 

school  was  industrial,  not  educational  reform.  Being 
men  of  large  experience  in  practical  affairs  they  realized 
that  the  destruction  of  the  apprentice  system  would  tend 
to  a  decline  of  American  industrial  power,  hence  they  in- 
stituted an  inquiry  on  the  subject,  "  How  to  increase  the 
supply  of  skilled  labor  ?"  Several  invited  guests  of  the 
club  took  part  in  the  discussion  of  the  subject  on  an  even- 
ing designated  for  the  purpose.  The  discussion  was  car- 
ried beyond  the  purely  industrial  scope  of  the  question 
submitted,  into  the  domain  of  education,  and  a  degree  of 
interest  was  manifested  in  manual  training,  the  existence 
of  which  had  not  been  even  suspected  by  the  most  ardent 
friends  of  educational  reform.  Before  the  club  adjourn- 
ed, its  members  had  pledged  themselves  to  found  a  man- 
ual training  school,  and  guaranteed  for  its  construction, 
equipment,  and  support  the  sum  of  one  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars.  But  in  founding  this  school  to  secure  bet- 
ter mechanics — more  skilful  workers  in  wood  and  iron — 
they  "  builded  better  than  they  knew,"  for  they  uncon- 
sciously inaugurated  an  educational  revolution.  In  lay- 
ing the  foundations  of  education  in  labor  it  is  digni- 
fied and  education  is  ennobled.  In  such  a  union  there 
is  honor  and  strength,  and  long  life  to  our  institutions. 
For  the  permanence  of  the  civil  compact  in  this  country, 
as  in  other  countries,  depends  less  upon  a  wide  diffusion 
of  unassimilated  and  undigested  intelligence  than  upon 
such  a  thorough,  practical  education  of  the  masses  in  the 
arts  and  sciences  as  shall  enable  them  to  secure,  and  qual- 
ify them  to  store  up,  a  fair  share  of  the  aggregate  prod- 
uce of  labor. 

If  this  school  shall  appear  like  a  hive  of  industry,  let 
the  reader  not  be  deceived.  Its  main  purpose,  intellect- 
ual development,  is  never  Ictet  sight  of  for  a  moment.  It 


4  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

is  a  system  of  object-teaching — teaching  through  things 
instead  of  through  signs  of  things.  It  is  the  embodi- 
ment of  Bacon's  aphorism — "Education  is  the  cultiva- 
tion of  a  just  and  legitimate  familiarity  betwixt  the  mind 
and  things."  The  students  draw  pictures  of  things,  and 
then  fashion  them  into  things  at  the  forge,  the  bench, 
and  the  turning-lathe ;  not  mainly  that  they  may  enter 
machine-shops,  and  with  greater  facility  make  similar 
things,  but  that  they  may  become  stronger  intellectually 
and  morally ;  that  they  may  attain  a  wider  range  of 
mental  vision,  a  more  varied  power  of  expression,  and  so 
be  better  able  to  solve  the  problems  of  life  when  they 
shall  enter  upon  the  stage  of  practical  activity. 

It  is  a  theory  of  this  school  that  in  the  processes  of  ed- 
ucation the  idea  should  never  be  isolated  from  the  object 
it  represents ;  (1)  because  the  idea,  being  the  reflex  per- 
ception or  shadow  of  the  object,  is  less  clearly  defined  than 
the  object  itself,  and  (2)  because  joining  the  object  and 
the  idea  intensifies  the  impression.  Separated  from  its 
object  the  idea  is  unreal,  a  phantom.  The  object  is  the 
flesh,  blood,  bones,  and  nerves  of  the  idea.  Without  its 
body  the  idea  is  as  impotent  as  the  steam  that  rises  from 
the  surface  of  boiling  water  and  loses  itself  in  the  air. 
But  unite  it  to  its  object  and  it  becomes  the  vital  spark, 
the  animating  force,  the  Promethean  fire.  Thus  steam 
converts  the  Corliss  engine — a  huge  mass  of  lifeless  iron 
— into  a  thing  of  grace,  of  beauty,  and  of  resistless  power. 
Suppose  the  teacher,  for  example,  desires  to  convey  to 
the  mind  of  a  child  having  no  knowledge  of  form  an 
impression  of  the  shape  of  the  earth;  he  says,  "It  is 
globular."  The  child's  face  expresses  nothing  because 
there  is  in  its  mind  no  conception  of  the  object  repre- 
sented by  the  word  globular.  The  teacher  says,  "  It  is  a 


THE  CHICAGO  MANUAL  TRAINING  SCHOOL.  5 

sphere,"  with  no  better  success.  He  adds,  "  A  sphere  is 
a  body  bounded  by  a  surface,  every  point  of  which  is 
equally  distant  from  a  point  within  called  the  centre." 
The  child's  face  is  still  expressionless.  The  teacher  takes 
a  handful  of  moist  clay  and  moulds  it  into  the  form  of  a 
sphere,  and  exhibiting  it,  says,  "  The  earth  is  like  this." 
The  child  claps  its  hands,  utters  a  cry  of  delight,  and 
exclaims,  "  It  is  round  like  a  ball !" 

This  is  an  illustration  of  the  triumph  of  object-teach- 
ing, the  method  alike  of  the  kindergarten  and  the  man- 
ual training  school.  As  the  child  is  father  of  the  man, 
so  the  kindergarten  is  father  of  the  manual  training 
school.  The  kindergarten  comes  first  in  the  order  of 
development,  and  leads  logically  to  the  manual  training 
school.  The  same  principle  underlies  both.  In  both  it 
is  sought  to  generate  power  by  dealing  with  things  in. 
connection  with  ideas.  Both  have  common  methods  of 
instruction,  and  they  should  be  adapted  to  the  whole 
period  of  school  life,  and  applied  to  all  schools. 

This  school,  situated  on  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
streets  in  the  world,  in  the  city  most  precisely  represent- 
ative of  the  present  age — the  age  of  steel — is  dedicated 
to  manual  education,  to  the  generation  of  power,  to  the 
development  of  true  manhood.  And  above  all,  this  school 
is  destined  to  unite  in  indissoluble  bonds  science  and  art, 
and  so  to  confer  upon  labor  the  highest  and  justest  dig- 
nity. The  reason  of  the  degradation  of  labor  was  admi- 
rably stated  by  America's  most  distinguished  education- 
al reformer,  the  late  Mr.  Horace  Mann,  who  said,  "  The 
labor  of  the  world  has  been  performed  by  ignorant  men, 
by  classes  doomed  to  ignorance  from  sire  to  son ;  by  the 
bondmen  and  bondwomen  of  the  Jews,  by  the  helots  of 
Sparta,  by  the  captives  who  passed  under  the  Roman 


6  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

yoke,  and  by  the  villeins  and  serfs  and  slaves  of  more 
modern  times." 

When  it  shall  have  been  demonstrated  that  the  high- 
est degree  of  education  results  from  combining  manual 
with  intellectual  training,  the  laborer  will  feel  the  pride 
of  a  genuine  triumph ;  for  the  consciousness  that  every 
thought-impelled  blow  educates  him,  and  so  raises  him 
,  in  the  scale  of  manhood,  will  nerve  his  arm,  and  fire  his 
brain  with  hope  and  courage. 


THE   MAJESTY  OF  TOOLS. 


CHAPTER  II. 
THE  MAJESTY  OF  TOOLS. 

Tools  the  Highest  Text -books  —  How  to  Use  them  the  Test  of 
Scholarship— They  are  the  Gauge  of  Civilization — Carlyle's  Apos- 
trophe to  them.— The  Typical  Hand-tools.— The  Automata  of  the 
Machine-shop. — Through  Tools  Science  and  Art  are  United. — The 
Power  of  Tools — Their  Educational  Value. — Without  Tools  Man 
is  Nothing ;  with  Tools  he  is  All. — It  is  through  the  Arts  alone 
that  Education  touches  Human  Life. 

SACKED  to  the  majesty  of  tools  might  be  appropriately 
inscribed  over  the  entrance  to  this  school  for  manual 
education ;  for  its  highest  text-books  are  tools,  and  how 
to  use  them  most  intelligently  is  the  test  of  scholarship. 
To  realize  the  potency  of  tools  it  is  only  necessary  to 
contrast  the  two  states  of  man  —  the  one  without  tools, 
the  other  with  tools.  See  him  in  the  first  state,  naked, 
shivering  with  cold,  now  hiding  away  from  the  beasts 
in  caves,  and  now,  famished  and  despairing,  gaunt  and 
hollow-eyed,  creeping  stealthily  like  a  panther  upon  his 
prey.  Then  see  him  in  the  poetic,  graphic  apostrophe 
of  Carlyle.  "Man,"  he  says,  "is  a  tool -using  animal. 
He  can  use  tools,  can  devise  tools ;  with  these  the  gran- 
ite mountains  melt  into  light  dust  before  him;  he 
kneads  iron  as  if  it  were  soft  paste ;  seas  are  his  smooth 
highway,  winds  and  fire  his  unwearying  steeds.  No- 
where do  you  find  him  without  tools ;  without  tools  he 
is  nothing,  with  tools  he  is  all !" 

What  a  picture  of  the  influence  of  tools  upon  civili- 
zation! It  is  through  the  use  of  tools  that  man  has 


8  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

reached  the  place  of  absolute  supremacy  among  animals. 
As  he  increases  his  stock  of  tools  he  recedes  from  the 
state  of  savagery.  The  great  gulf  between  the  aboriginal 
savage  and  the  civilized  man  is  spanned  by  the  seven 
hand-tools — the  axe,  the  saw,  the  plane,  the  hammer,  the 
square,  the  chisel,  and  the  file.  These  are  the  universal 
tools  of  the  arts,  and  the  modern  machine  -  shop  is  an 
aggregation  of  them  rendered  automatic  and  driven  by 
steam. 

The  ancients  constructed  automata  which  were  ex- 
ceedingly ingenious.  In  the  statues  that  could  walk  and 
talk,  the  Chinese  puppets  and  the  marionettes  of  the 
Greeks  there  was  a  hint  of  the  modern  automatic  tools, 
which,  driven  by  steam,  fashion  with  equal  accuracy  the 
delicate  parts  of  the  watch  and  the  huge  segments  of  the 
marine  engine.  The  ancients  knew  more  of  science  than 
of  art.  They  were  familiar  with  the  power  of  steam, 
but  knew  not  how  to  apply  it  to  the  wants  of  man. 
They  knew  that  steam  would  turn  a  spit,  but  they  had 
not  a  sufficient  knowledge  of  art  to  convert  the  power 
they  had  discovered  into  a  monster  of  force,  and  train  it 
to  bear  the  burdens  of  commerce.  They  never  thought 
to  apply  the  jet  of  steam  used  to  turn  a  spit  to  great 
automatic  machines,  and  to  fit  into  them  saws  and  files, 
and  needles  and  drills,  and  gimlets  and  planes,  and  com- 
pel them  to  do  the  work  of  thousands  of  men.  But  this 
is  precisely  what  the  modern  mechanic  has  accom- 
plished. In  making  a  slave  of  steam,  science  and  art 
have  combined  to  free  mankind. 

"We  marvel  at  the  dulness  of  the  ancients  as  shown  in 
their  failure  to  utilize  in  the  practical  arts  the  discoveries 
of  science.  That  they  should  have  studied  the  stars  over 
their  heads  to  the  neglect  of  the  earth  under  their  feet  is 


THE   MAJESTY  OF  TOOLS.  9 

incomprehensible  to  the  modern  mind.  But  will  not  fut- 
ure generations  marvel  at  us  ?  Is  it  not  an  astounding 
fact  that,  with  a  knowledge  of  the  tremendous  influence 
of  tools  upon  the  destiny  of  the  human  race  so  graphic- 
ally depicted  by  Carlyle,  the  nations  have  been  so  slow 
in  incorporating  tool-practice  into  educational  methods? 
The  distinguishing  features  of  modern  civilization  sprang 
as  definitively  from  cunningly  devised  and  skilfully  han- 
dled tools  as  any  effect  from  its  cause.  And  yet  the 
world's  statesmen  have  failed  to  discover  the  value  of 
tool-practice  as  an  educational  agency.  The  face  of  the 
globe  has  been  transformed  by  the  union  of  art  and 
science,  but  the  world's  statesmen  have  not  discerned  the 
importance  of  uniting  them  in  the  curriculum  of  the 
schools.  If  the  ancients  could  see  us  as  we  see  them, 
they  would  doubtless  laugh  at  us  as  we  laugh  at  them. 

We  might  take  a  lesson  from  the  savage.  He  is  taught 
to  fight,  to  hunt,  and  to  fish,  and  in  these  arts  the  brain, 
the  hand,  and  the  eye  are  trained  simultaneously.  He  is 
first  given  object-lessons,  as  the  pupil  of  the  kindergarten 
is  taught.  Then  the  tomahawk,  the  spear,  and  the  bow 
and  arrow  are  placed  in  his  hands,  and  he  fights  for  his 
life,  or  fishes  or  hunts  for  his  dinner.  The  young  Indian 
is  taught  all  that  it  is  necessary  for  him  to  know,  and  he 
is  educated,  practically,  in  the  savage's  three  workshops 
— the  battle-field,  the  forest  and  plain,  the  sea  and  lake. 
Thus  the  young  savage  enters  upon  the  duties  of  his  life 
with  an  exact  practical  knowledge  of  them.  He  has  not 
been  taught  a  theory  of  fighting,  he  has  used  the  weap- 
ons of  warfare ;  he  has  not  studied  the  arts  of  fishing  and 
hunting,  he  has  handled  the  spear  and  the  bow  and  ar- 
row, and  their  use  is  as  familiar  to  him  as  the  multiplica- 
tion table  is  to  the  boy  in  the  public  school. 


10  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

We  have  more  and  better  tools  than  the  savage  pos- 
sesses. With  the  aid  of  science  and  these  tools  we  har- 
ness steam  to  our  chariot  and  compel  it  to  draw  us  whith- 
er we  will.  We  steal  fire  from  the  clouds  and  make  it 
serve  us  as  a  messenger.  We  imprison  the  air,  and  with 
it  stop  the  flying  railway  train.  With  the  aid  of  science 
and  these  tools  we  reduce  the  most  subtile  forces  of  nat- 
ure to  servitude,  but  we  neither  teach  our  youth  how 
to  master  their  elements  nor  how  to  use  them. 

Tools  represent  the  steps  of  human  progress — in  archi- 
tecture, from  the  mud  hut  to  the  modern  mansion ;  in 
agriculture,  from  the  pointed  stick  used  to  tear  the  turf 
to  a  thousand  and  one  ingenious  instruments  of  husband- 
dry  ;  in  ship-building,  from  the  rudderless,  sailless  boat  to 
the  ocean  steamer ;  in  fabrics,  from  the  matted  fleece  of 
the  shepherd  to  the  varied  products  of  countless  looms ; 
in  pottery,  from  the  first  rude  Egyptian  cup  to  the  ex- 
quisite  vase  of  the  Sevres  factory.  And  so  of  every  art 
that  contributes  to  the  comfort  and  pleasure  of  man ;  the 
development  of  each  has  been  accomplished  by  tools  in  the 
hands  of  the  laborer. 

Since,  then,  man  owes  so  much  to  labor,  he  has  doubt- 
less educated  the  laborer  and  showered  honors  upon 
him  (?).  On  the  contrary,  the  labor  of  the  world  has  been 
performed  by  the  most  ignorant  classes,  by  bondmen,  by 
helots  and  captives,  by  serfs  and  slaves.  The  laborer  has 
been  held  in  such  contempt,  and  been  so  debased  by  ig- 
norance, that  he  has  often  violently  protested  against  im- 
provements in  the  tools  of  the  trades,  and  with  vandal 
hands  destroyed  the  mill,  the  factory,  and  the  forge  erect- 
ed to  ameliorate  his  condition.  At  the  top  of  the  social 
scale  the  sage  has  studied  the  stars  and  invented  systems 
of  abstract  philosophy ;  at  the  bottom  ignorance  has  dei- 


THE   MAJESTY  OF  TOOLS.  11 

fied  itself  and  starved.  This  divorce  of  science  from  art 
has  resulted  in  such  incongruities  as  the  Pyramids  of 
Egypt  and  periodical  famines;  as  the  hanging  gardens 
of  Babylon  and  the  horrors  of  Jewish  captivity ;  as  the 
Greek  Parthenon  and  dwellings  without  chimneys;  as 
the  statues  of  Phidias  and  Praxiteles,  and  royal  banquets 
without  knives,  forks,  or  spoons;  as  the  Roman  Forum 
and  the  Roman  populace  crying  for  bread  and  circuses ; 
as  Socrates,  Plato,  Seneca  and  Aurelius,  and  Caligula, 
Claudius,  Nero  and  Domitian. 

On  the  other  hand  the  union  of  science  with  art  tun- 
nels the  mountain,  bridges  the  river,  dams  the  torrent, 
and  converts  the  wilderness  into  a  fruitful  field. 

Science  discovers  and  art  appropriates  and  utilizes ; 
and  as  science  is  helpless  without  the  aid  of  artv  so  art  is 
dead  without  the  help  of  tools.  Tools  then  constitute 
the  great  civilizing  agency  of  the  world  ;  for  civilization 
is  the  art  of  rendering  life  agreeable.  The  savage  may 
own  a  continent,  but  if  he  possesses  only  the  savage's 
tools  —  the  spear  and  the  bow  and  arrow  —  he  will  be 
ill-fed,  ill-housed,  ill -clothed,  and  poorly  protected  both 
against  cold  and  heat.  He  might  be  familiar  with  all 
the  known  sciences,  but  if  he  were  ignorant  of  the  arts 
his  state,  instead  of  being  improved,  would  be  rendered 
more  deplorable ;  for  with  the  thoughts,  emotions,  sensi- 
bilities, and  aspirations  of  a  sage  he  would  still  be  pow- 
erless to  steal  from  heaven  a  single  spark  of  fire  with 
which  to  warm  his  miserable  hut. 

In  the  light  of  this  analysis  Carlyle's  rhapsody  on  tools 
becomes  a  prosaic  fact,  and  his  conclusion — that  man  with- 
out tools  is  nothing,  with  tools  all — points  the  way  to  the 
discovery  of  the  philosopher's  stone  in  education.  For 
if  man  without  tools  is  nothing,  to  be  unable  to  use  tools 


13  MANUAL  TKAINING. 

is  to  be  destitute  of  power ;  and  if  man  with  tools  is  all, 
to  be  able  to  use  tools  is  to  be  all-powerful.  And  this 
power  in  the  concrete,  the  power  to  do  some  useful  thing 
for  mankind — this  is  the  last  analysis  of  educational  truth. 
,-  There  is  no  better  definition  of  education  than  that  of 
Pestalozzi — "  the  generation  of  power."  But  what  kind 
of  power?  Not  merely  power  to  think  abstractly,  to 
speculate,  to  moralize,  to  philosophize,  but  power  to  act 
intelligently.  And  the  power  to  act  intelligently  in- 
volves the  exertion,  in  greater  or  less  degree,  of  all  the 
powers,  both  mental  and  physical.  Education,  then,  is 
the  development  of  all  the  powers  of  man  to  the  culmi- 
nating point  of  action.  "What  kind  of  action  ?  Action 
in  art.  What  is  art  ?  "  The  power  of  doing  something 
not  taught  by  nature  or  instinct ;  power  or  skill  in  the 
use  of  knowledge ;  the  practical  application  of  the  rules 
or  principles  of  science."  Again  we  have  the  last  analy- 
sis of  education — "  skill  in  the  use  of  knowledge ;  the 
application  of  the  rules  or  principles  of  science."  And 
this  is  tool  practice. 

It  is  unnecessary,  in  an  educational  view,  to  divide 
the  arts  by  the  use  of  the  terms  "  practical "  and  "  fine ;" 
for  the  fine  arts  can  only  exist  legitimately  where  the 
practical  arts  have  paved  the  way.  In  a  harmonious 
development  the  artist  will  enter  on  the  heels  of  the 
artisan.  Art  is  cosmopolitan.  It  is  not  less  worthily 
represented  by  the  carpenter  with  his  square,  saw,  and 
plane,  and  the  smith  with  his  sledge,  than  by  the  sculp- 
tor with  his  mallet  and  chisel,  and  the  painter  with  his 
easel  and  brush.  Both  classes  contribute  to  the  comfort 
and  pleasure  of  mankind;  for  comfort  is  enhanced  by 
pleasure,  and  pleasure  is  intensified  by  comfort.  It  fol- 
lows that  the  ultimate  object  of  education  is  the  attain- 


THE  MAJESTY  OF  TOOLS.  13 

ment  of  skill  in  the  arts.  To  this  end  the  speculations 
and  investigations  of  philosophy  and  the  experiments  of 
chemistry  lead.  At  the  door  of  the  study  of  the  philos- 
opher and  of  the  laboratory  of  the  chemist  stands  the 
artisan,  listening  for  the  newest  hint  that  philosophy  can 
.impart,  waiting  for  the  result  of  the  latest  chemical  analy- 
sis. In  his  hands  these  suggestions  take  form ;  through 
his  skilful  manipulation  the  faint  indications  of  science 
become  real  things,  suited  to  the  exigencies  of  human  life. 
It  is  the  most  astounding  fact  of  history  that  educa- 
tion has  been  confined  to  abstractions.  The  schools  have 
taught  history,  mathematics,  language  and  literature  and 
the  sciences,  to  the  utter  exclusion  of  the  arts,  notwith- 
standing the  obvious  fact  that  it  is  through  the  arts  alone 
that  other  branches  of  learning  touch  human  life.  As 
Bacon  has  so  aptly  expressed  it,  "  The  real  and  legitimate 
goal  of  the  sciences  is  the  endowment  of  human  life  with 
new  inventions  and  riches."  In  a  word,  public  education 
stops  at  the  exact  point  where  it  should  begin  to  apply 
the  theories  it  has  imparted.  At  this  point  the  school 
of  manual  training  begins ;  not  only  books  but  tools  are 
put  into  the  hands  of  the  pupil,  with  this  injunction  of 
Comenius :  "  Let  those  things  that  have  to  be  done  be 
learned  by  doing  them." 


14  MANUAL  TRAINING. 


CHAPTER  III. 
THE  ENGINE-ROOM. 

The  Corliss  Engine — A  Thing  of  Grace  and  Power — The  Growth 
of  Two  Thousand  Years — Prom  Hero  to  Watt — Its  Duty  as  a 
School-master. — The  Interdependence  of  the  Ages. — The  School 
in  Epitome. 

LET  us  enter  the  Manual  Training  School  building  and 
take  a  bird's-eye  view  of  the  visible  processes  of  the  new 
education. 

The  first  object  that  attracts  attention  is  the  engine. 
It  is  a  "  Corliss,"  fifty-two  horse-power,  and  makes  that 
peculiar  kind  of  noise  which  conveys  to  the  mind  of  the 
observer  an  impression  of  restrained  power.  When  the 
student,  upon  entering  the  school,  is  shown  this  beautiful 
machine  he  is  told  that  it,  like  all  other  inventions,  is  a 
growth — the  growth  of  at  least  two  thousand  years ;  that 
the  power  of  steam  was  known  to  the  ancients  —  the 
Egyptians,  Greeks,  and  Romans;  that  Hero,  a  philoso- 
pher of  Alexandria,  invented  a  crude  steam-engine  before 
the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era,  and  that  the  engine 
before  us,  which  throbs  and  trembles  under  the  pressure 
of  its  battery  of  steel  boilers  in  doing  duty  as  a  school- 
master, is  the  latest  development  of  Hero's  conception. 
The  educational  idea  underlying  this  fact  is  the  inter- 
dependence of  the  ages ;  each  generation  is  a  link  be- 
tween the  past  and  the  future.  "  To  show,"  as  Philarete 
Chasles  says,  "  that  man  can  only  act  efficiently  by  asso- 
ciation with  others,  it  has  been  ordained  that  each  in- 
ventor shall  only  interpret  the  first  word  of  the  problem 
he  sets  himself  to  solve,  and  that  every  great  idea  shall 


THE   ENGINE-ROOM.  15 

be  the  resume  of  the  past  at  the  same  time  that  it  is  the 
germ  of  the  future." 

The  first  word  of  the  solution  of  the  steam-power 
problem  came  from  Hero  down  the  ages,  through  De- 
eaus,  Papin,  Savory,  Newcomen,  Breighton,  and  Smea- 
ton,  to  Watt.  To  Watt  is  awarded  the  honor  of  the 
invention  of  the  modern  steam-engine ;  but  the  first  con- 
ception of  his  engine  was  derived  from  an  atmospheric 
machine  through  the  accident  of  it  having  been  placed 
in  his  hands  for  repairs.  Smeaton  was  the  inventor  of 
that  atmospheric  engine,  and  his  mind  was  one  of  the 
links  in  the  chain  of  intelligences  extending  back  to 
Egypt,  through  whose  united  agency  the  steam-engine 
became  a  real  thing  of  power  in  the  cunning  hands  of 
James  Watt,  of  whom  the  late  Dr.  Draper  said,  "He 
conferred  on  his  native  country  more  solid  benefits  than 
all  the  treaties  she  ever  made  and  all  the  battles  she  ever 
won."  This  law  governing  great  achievements  is  full  of 
encouragement  to  the  student  of  mechanics,  for  while 
the  thought  of  compassing  any  great  discovery  or  inven- 
tion may  well  appall  even  the  boldest,  the  most  humble 
may  hope  through  studious  industry  to  contribute  some- 
thing to  the  sum  of  human  knowledge. 

The  engine-room  of  our  school  is  neater  than  that  of 
the  ordinary  machine-shop,  but  the  furnace  roars  like 
any  other,  its  open  mouth  shows  a  bank  of  glowing  coals, 
and  the  "stoker,"  with  grimy  hands,  wipes  the  sweat 
from  his  sooty  brow.  The  whole  school  is  here  seen  in 
epitome:  the  "stoker"  typifies  the  student  toiling  at 
the  forge,  and  in  the  polished  engine,  exhibiting  both 
grace  and  power  in  its  automatic  action,  we  see  the  stu- 
dent's graduating  project,  a  machine,  the  joint  creation 
of  brain,  eye,  and  hand. 


16  MANUAL  TRAINING. 


CHAPTER  IV. 
THE  DRAWING-ROOM. 

Twenty-four  Boys  bending  over  the  Drawing-board. — Analysis  and 
Synthesis  in  Drawing. — Geometric  Drawing. — Pictorial  Drawing. 
— The  Principles  of  Design. — The  ^Esthetic  in  Art.— The  Funda- 
mentals—  Object  and  Constructive  Drawing. —  Drawing  for  the 
Exercises  in  the  Laboratories. — The  Educational  Value  of  Draw- 
ing —  The  Language  of  Drawing.  —  Every  Student  an  expert 
Draughtsman  at  the  end  of  the  Course. 

PASSING  from  the  engine-room  in  the  basement  to  the 
second  story  we  enter  the  room  assigned  to  drawing, 
where  twenty-four  boys  are  bending  over  the  drawing- 
board,  pencil  in  hand.  Every  school-day  for  three  years 
these  boys  will  spend  an  hour  in  this  room.  Each  divi- 
sion of  drawing  —  free-hand  and  mechanical  —  is  thor- 
oughly taught.  Every  graduate  of  the  institution  will 
be  an  expert  draughtsman.  The  room  is  very  still,  only 
the  scratching  sound  of  twenty-four  pencils  is  heard. 
The  instructor  moves  about  among  the  students,  with 
here  and  there  a  hint,  a  suggestion,  a  correction,  or  a 
word  of  commendation — "  good." 

Drawing  is  the  representation  on  paper  of  the  facts, 
and  the  appearance  to  the  eye  of  forms.  The  exercise 
proceeds  by  both  analysis  and  synthesis.  A  cube  is  di- 
vided into  all  the  geometric  figures  of  which  it  is  suscep- 
tible, and  these  figures  are  imitated  with  the  pencil  on 
paper.  Then  the  figures  are  reunited,  and  the  cube  is 
similarly  imitated.  As  the  child  in  the  kindergarten  is 
taught  several  fundamental  geometric  facts  through  the 


THE  DRAWING-ROOM. 


17 


use  of  variously  subdivided  cubes,  so  the  student   of 

drawing  is  taught  by  a  similar  process  how  to  represent 

these  fundamental  facts  on  paper.     For  example  (1),  the 

student  is  taught  to  draw  the  following  (sketches  1,  2, 

and  3)  geometric  forms 

of   the   square,   oblong, 

and    circle ;    (2)    he    is 

taught  (sketches  4,  5,  6, 

and  7)  to  represent  the 

facts  of  the  oblong  block  and  cylinder;  (3)  these  facts 

are  expressed  as  follows  (sketches  8  and  9)  in  working 


D 


drawings.  Sketches  8  and  9  are  such  drawings  as  would 
be  placed  in  the  hands  of  a  mechanic  as  plans  for  the 
manufacture  of  the  solids  they  repre- 
sent ;  and  the  most  elaborate  working 
drawings  for  building  and  mechanical 
purposes  are  merely  the  complete  de- 
velopment of  this  division  of  the  art. 
Another  division  of  drawing  con- 
sists in  the  representation  of  solids 
or  objects  as  they  appear  to  the  eye  or  pictorially.  The 
oblong  block  and  cylinder,  for  exam- 
ple, appear  to  the  eye  very  differently 
from  their  facts  represented  in  the 
working  drawings  (sketches  8  and  9), 
as  thus — 

The  development  of  this  division  of  drawing  leads  to 
general  pictorial  representation. 


18  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

Finally  the  mastery  of  tlie  art  of  drawing  involves  a 
study  of  the  principles  of  design  as  applied  to  industrial 
articles  with  the  purpose  of  enhancing  their  value,  as  de- 
signs for  wall-paper,  carpets,  embroideries,  tapestry,  tex- 
tiles generally,  and  decorative  work  in  wood.  This  is 
the  aesthetic  element  in  the  art  which  appeals  to  and  de- 
velops the  student's  taste.  It  is  an  important  feature  of 
drawing,  not  less  on  this  account  than  from  the  fact  that 
the  designer's  profession  is  a  very  lucrative  one,  but  it  is 
less  important  than  object  and  constructive  drawing,  be- 
cause less  fundamental.  Besides,  object  and  constructive 
work  in  drawing  come  first  in  the  order  of  development, 
and  it  is  an  inexorable  rule  of  the  new  education  to  fol- 
low implicitly  the  hints  of  nature. 

The  basis  of  the  art  of  drawing  is  geometry,  and  its 
«,  5,  c  consists  m  a  knowledge  of  certain  geometrical 
lines,  curves,  and  angles.  This  knowledge  is  gained 
from  examples  on  the  black-board  which  are  reproduced 
on  paper.  But  to  relieve  the  student  of  this  school 
from  the  tedium  of  reproducing,  hundreds  of  times  in 
succession,  the  same  lines,  angles,  and  curves,  object-draw- 
ing is  introduced  very  early  in  the  course ;  and  to  ren- 
der the  exercise  more  attractive,  as  well  as  to  impress  it 
more  firmly  upon  the  mind,  the  objects  drawn  during  the 
day  are  made  features  of  the  construction  lesson  in  the 
carpenter's  laboratory,  the  wood  or  iron  turning  labora- 
tory, or  the  laboratory  of  founding  on  the  following  day. 
At  first  the  objects  selected  for  this  exercise  are  of  a  very 
simple  character,  as  a  piece  of  plain  moulding — a  piece  of 
elaborate  moulding ;  parts  of  a  drawing-board — an  entire 
drawing-board  ;  parts  of  a  table  or  desk — an  entire  table 
or  desk  ;  parts  of  a  draughtsman's  stool — an  entire  stool ; 
parts  of  a  chair — an  entire  chair. 


THE  DKAWING-ROOM.  19 

As  the  student  advances  in  the  general  course  he  ad- 
vances in  object  and  constructive  drawing,  from  simple 
to  complex  forms.  He  draws,  for  example,  various  parts 
of  the  steam-heating  apparatus,  and  from  these  draughts 
makes  working  drawings  of  patterns  for  moulding.  These 
he  works  out  in  the  Carpenter's  Laboratory,  and  thence 
takes  them  to  the  moulding-room,  where  they  are  used 
in  the  lesson  given  in  moulding  for  casting.  This  method 
of  instruction  leads  to  a  critical  analysis  of  the  entire  in- 
terior of  the  school  building.  Each  article  is  resolved 
into  the  original  elements  of  its  construction,  and  each 
element  or  part  is  first  represented  on  paper,  then  ex- 
panded into  working  drawings,  and  then  wrought  out  in 
wood  and  iron.  Finally  the  student  reaches  the  engine, 
every  part  of  which  is  made  the  subject  of  exhaustive 
study ;  the  facts  of  every  part  are  represented  on  paper, 
working  drawings  of  every  part  are  made,  and  every  part 
is  reproduced  in  steel  and  iron  in  miniature,  and,  as  a 
triumph  of  drawing,  a  representation  on  paper  of  the 
completed  engine  is  produced. 

The  value  of  drawing  as  an  educational  agency  is  sim- 
ply incalculable.  It  is  the  first  step  in  manual  training. 
It  brings  the  eye  and  the  mind  into  relations  of  the 
closest  intimacy,  and  makes  the  hand  the  organ  of  both. 
It  trains  and  develops  the  sense  of  form  and  proportion, 
renders  the  eye  accurate  in  observation,  and  the  hand 
cunning  in  execution. 

The  students  -are  intent  upon  their  work.  The  eye  is 
busy  acting  as  interpreter  between  the  mind  and  the 
hand.  Having  conveyed  the  impression  of  an  object  to 
the  mind,  under  its  direction  it  now  photographs  the 
object  on  paper,  and  the  hand  obeying  the  will  traces  it 
out  in  lines.  Thus  the  power  is  gained  of  multiplying 


20  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

forms  of  tilings  with  the  pencil  as  words  are  multiplied 
by  types. 

Drawing  is  a  language — the  language  in  which  art  re- 
cords the  discoveries  of  science.  It  is  not  German,  it  is 
not  French,  it  is  not  English — it  is  universal — common 
to  all  draughtsmen.  The  face  of  the  student  exhibits 
vivid  flashes  of  intelligence  as  the  picture  reveals  itself 
under  his  hand.  Each  line  is  a  word,  an  angle  completes 
the  sentence ;  with  a  curve  and  a  little  delicate  shading 
we  have  a  paragraph.  The  picture  begins  to  glow  with 
thought.  The  student's  face  flushes,  his  heart  beats  quick 
and  his  hand  trembles.  But  he  restrains  himself,  and 
adds  more  lines,  more  angles  and  curves,  more  shading, 
and  the  picture  is  complete.  It  stands  out  in  bold  relief, 
and  looks  like  a  real  thing.  If  the  student  knows  the  story 
of  the  brazen  statue  of  Albertus  Magnus  he  half  expects 
his  picture  of  a  locomotive  to  move.  He  listens  for  the 
sound  of  the  hissing  steam,  and  a.  smile  lights  up  his  face 
as  the  illusion  vanishes.  Presently  he  will  take  his  draw- 
ing to  the  shop,  and  at  the  bench,  the  lathe,  the  anvil, 
and  the  forge,  reproduce  it  in  iron  and  steel,  and  actually 
vitalize  it  with  steam. 


THE  CARPENTER'S  LABORATORY.       21 


CHAPTER  V. 
THE  CARPENTER'S  LABORATORY. 

The  Natural  History  of  the  Pine-tree  —  How  it  is  Converted  into 
Lumber,  what  it  is  "Worth,  and  how  it  is  Consumed. — Where  the 
Students  get  Information.  — Working  Drawings  of  the  Lesson. — 
Asking  Questions. — The  Instructor  Executes  the  Lesson. — Instruc- 
tion in  the  Use  and  Care  of  Tools.  —  Twenty-four  Boys  Making 
Things— As  Busy  as  Bees. — The  Music  of  the  Laboratory. — The 
Self-reliance  of  the  Students. 

PASSING  down  a  flight  of  stairs  and  crossing  a  hall  we 
enter  the  Carpenter's  Laboratory.  Here  we  find  twenty- 
four  boys  seated  before  a  black-board.  At  their  left 
stands  the  instructor  with  a  piece  of  white  pine  in  his 
hand.  The  piece  of  pine  is  the  subject  of  his  lecture. 
He  frequently  breaks  the  thread  of  his  remarks  to  ask 
questions,  and  he  is  as  frequently  interrupted  by  ques- 
tions from  members  of  the  class.  The  scene  closely  re- 
sembles an  animated  discussion,  of  which  a  desire  to  learn 
by  asking  questions  is  the  chief  characteristic.  The  dis- 
cussion is  about  pine-trees  and  pine  lumber.  A  pale- 
faced,  city-bred  boy  rises  to  describe  the  pine-tree.  He 
describes  a  fir-tree,  such  as  may  be  seen  in  well-kept  ur- 
ban grounds  and  parks,  and  describes  it  in  well-chosen, 
almost  poetic  phrase.  The  instructor  shakes  his  head, 
but  with  a  genial  smile,  and  recognizes  a  boy  whose  face 
is  tanned  brown,  and  who  rises  at  the  nod  and  stands 
rather  awkwardly  as  he  speaks.  He  has  seen  the  pine 
in  its  native  wilds,  and  he  describes  quite  graphically 
its  long,  bare  trunk  and  slender  limbs.  But  he  says 


22  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

nothing  of  its  narrow,  linear  leaves,  of  a  dark  green  color, 
nor  of  its  woody  cones,  nor  of  the  JEolian-harp-like  sound 
of  the  wind  in  its  branches.  Why,  the  instructor  wants 
to  know,  and  he  propounds  a  series  of  questions,  the  an- 
swers to  which  afford  a  brief  sketch  of  the  boy's  history. 
His  father  is  a  dealer  in  pine  logs,  and  once  this  boy 
went  with  him  into  the  pineries  of  Northern  Michigan 
in  mid- winter,  when  the  landscape  was  white  with  snow, 
and  there  saw  the  huge  trees  sway  back  and  forth  under 
the  woodman's  axe,  saw  them  topple  over,  and  heard  the 
loud  crash  of  their  fall,  saw  them  trimmed  and  sawed 
into  mill-logs.  He  took  no  note  of  the  woody  cones,  nor 
of  the  narrow  leaves  of  the  pine,  nor  did  the  sound  of 
the  wind  in  its  branches  make  any  impression  upon  his 
mind.  He  saw  the  pine  as  his  father  saw  it,  with  the 
eyes  of  a  lumberman.  He  learned  just  one  thing,  and 
learned  it  so  well  that  he  is  able  to  tell  the  story  of  the 
pine-tree  from  the  moment  of  its  fall  from  the  stump  in 
the  great  forest  to  its  arrival  at  the  mill,  and  thence,  cut 
into  boards,  planks,  and  timber,  to  the  raft  or  schooner 
bound  for  Chicago. 

Then  the  different  varieties  of  the  pine-tree  are  enu- 
merated, and  the  uses  to  which  their  woods  are  severally 
adapted  mentioned.  The  countries  which  chiefly  pro- 
duce the  pine-tree  are  named,  and  the  climatic  conditions 
most  favorable  to  its  growth  briefly  referred  to.  This 
discussion  leads  to  the  subject  of  commerce  in  pine  lum- 
ber— quantity  consumed,  demand  and  supply,  etc;  and 
this  in  turn  brings  a  boy  to  his  feet  with  the  statement 
that  at  the  present  rate  of  consumption  the  supply  of 
pine  in  North  America  will  be  exhausted  in  fifty  years. 
In  answer  to  a  question  the  boy  says  he  read  the  state- 
ment in  a  newspaper.  This  leads  to  further  inquiry  as 


THE  CARPENTER  S  LABORATORY.         35 

to  the  sources  of  information  sought  by  the  members  of 
the  class,  whereupon  it  appears  that  fifteen  boys  have 
consulted  the  title  "  pine "  in  some  encyclopedia  with  a 
view  to  the  present  lesson,  and  that  eighteen  boys  have 
read  the  market  report  under  the  title  "  lumber "  in  a 
daily  journal,  in  order  to  learn  the  value  of  white-pine 
boards.  The  value  being  stated  by  half  a  dozen  boys, 
each  member  of  the  class  computes  the  cost  of  the  piece 
of  pine  in  the  hands  of  the  teacher. 

Ten  minutes  having  been  consumed  in  the  inquiry  into 
the  nature  and  value  of  the  wood  in  which  the  lesson  of 
the  day  is  to  be  wrought,  the  instructor  makes  working 
drawings  of  the  lesson  on  the  black-board.  It  may  con- 
sist of  a  plain  joint,  a  mitre  joint,  a  dove -tail  joint,  a 
tenno  and  mortise,  or  a  frame  involving  all  these  and 
more  manipulations.  In  the  few  minutes  devoted  to  this 
exercise  any  question  that  occurs  to  the  mind  of  the  stu- 
dent may  be  asked,  and  no  impatience  is  manifested  or 
felt  if  the  questions  are  numerous  and  reiterated.  But 
as  a  matter-of-fact  very  few  questions  are  asked  during 
the  black-board  exercise,  because  each  student,  having 
gone  over  every  step  of  it  in  his  drawing-class  the  day 
previous,  is  perfectly  familiar  with  the  subject. 

The  instructor  now  quits  the  black-board  for  the  bench, 
where,  in  the  presence  of  the  whole  class,  he  executes  the 
difficult  parts  of  the  lesson,  still  propounding  and  answer- 
ing questions.  If  a  new  tool  is  brought  into  requisition, 
instruction  is  given  in  its  care  and  use.  Now  the  boys 
repair  to  their  benches,  throw  off  their  coats,  and  seize 
their  tools.  In  a  moment  the  silence  and  repose  of  the 
recitation-room  are  exchanged  for  the  noise  and  activity 
of  the  laboratory.  A  quarter  of  an  hour  ago  we  left 
twenty-four  boys,  with  bowed  heads,  making  drawings  of 


26  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

things ;  for  a  quarter  of  an  hour  we  have  listened  to  a 
peculiar  kind  of  recitation  involving  much  practical  knowl- 
edge on  the  subject  of  the  pine-tree  and  its  product,  lum- 
ber ;  now  we  stand  in  the  presence  of  twenty-four  boys,  in 
twenty-four  different  attitudes  of  labor,  making  things. 
They  are  literally  as  busy  as  bees,  using  the  square,  the 
saw,  the  plane,  and  the  chisel ;  they  are,  as  the  journey- 
man carpenter  would  say,  "getting  out  stuff  for  a  job." 
The  coarse,  buzzing  sound  of  the  cross-cut  saw  resounds 
loudly  through  the  room ;  above  this  bass  note  the  sharp 
tenor  tone  of  the  rip-saw  is  heard,  and  the  rasping  sound 
of  half  a  dozen  planes  throwing  off  a  series  of  curling 
pine  ribbons  comes  in  as  a  rude  refrain.  The  faces  of  the 
boys  are  ruddy  with  the  glow  of  exercise  ;  the  pale-faced 
boy  who  mistook  a  fir-tree  for  a  pine  will  have  his  revenge 
on  the  angular  boy  from  the  Michigan  pinery,  for  he  is 
doing  a  finer  piece  of  work  than  the  other. 

In  the  midst  of  the  harmonious  confusion  caused  by  the 
use  of  saws,  planes,  mallets,  and  chisels,  the  instructor  raps 
on  his  desk,  and  silence  is  restored ;  three  or  four  boys 
stand  in  a  group  about  the  instructor's  desk,  the  others 
pause  and  wipe  the  perspiration  from  their  brows.  It  is 
a  picture  fullof  interest — twenty-four  boys,  with  flushed, 
eager  faces,  lifting  their  eyes  simultaneously  to  the  face  of 
the  instructor,  waiting  for  the  hint  which  is  to  come,  and 
which  is  sure  in  these  now  active  minds  to  result  in  a 
prompt  solution  of  the  main  problem  of  the  day's  lesson. 
A  similar  question  from  several  boys  shows  the  instruct- 
or that  the  lesson  has  not  been  made  clear;  hence  the 
general  explanation  which  follows  the  call  to  order.  So 
the  work  goes  on,  with  now  and  then  an  interruption. 
There  is  a  student  trying  to  fit  a  tenon  into  its  mortise ; 
he  is  nervous  and  impatient ;  the  instructor  observes  him, 


THE  CARPENTER'S  LABORATORY.  29 

foresees  a  catastrophe,  and  moves  towards  his  bench.  But 
it  is  too  late !  The  tenon  being  forced  the  mortise  splits, 
and  the  discomforted  student  makes  a  wry  face.  The  in- 
structor approaches  with  a  word  of  good  cheer,  but  with 
the  warning  aphorism  that  "haste  makes  waste."  The 
student's  face  flushes,  and  he  chronicles  his  failure  as 
Huntsman,  the  inventor  of  cast-steel,  did  his,  by  burying 
the  wreck  under  a  pile  of  shavings,  and  commencing,  as 
the  lawyers  say,  de  novo.  Thus  the  lesson  proceeds  "  by 
the  usual  laboratory  methods  employed  in  teaching  the 
sciences;"  the  class  learns  the  thing  to  be  done  by  do- 
ing it.  The  students  are  at  their  best,  because  the  lesson 
to  be  learned  compels  a  close  union  between  the  three 
great  powers  of  man — observation,  reflection,  and  action. 
No  student  seeks  aid  from  another,  because  such  a  course 
would  be  impossible  without  the  knowledge  of  the  whole 
class.  A  feeling  of  self-reliance  is  thus  developed,  the 
disposition  to  shirk  repressed,  and  a  sense  of  sturdy  inde- 
pendence encouraged  and  promoted. 


30  MANUAL  TRAINING. 


CHAPTER  VI. 
THE  WOOD-TURNING  LABORATORY. 

A  Radical  Change  —  From  the  Square  to  the  Circle;  from  Angles 
to  Spherical,  Cylindrical,  and  Eccentric  Forms. — The  Rhythm  of 
Mechanics. — The  Potter's  "Wheel  of  the  Ancients  and  the  Turning- 
lathe — The  Speculation  of  Holtzapffels  on  its  Origin. — The  Greeks 
as  Turners. — The  Turners  of  the  Middle  Ages. — George  III.  at  the 
Lathe. — Maudslay's  Slide-rest,  and  the  Revolution  it  wrought. — 
The  Natural  History  of  Black  -  walnut. — The  Practical  Value  of 
Imagination — Disraeli's  Tribute  to  it;  Sir  Robert  Peel's  Want  of 
it. — The  Laboratory  animated  by  Steam. — The  Boys  at  the  Lathes 
— Their  Manly  Bearing. — The  Lesson. 

WHEN  the  twenty-four  boys  of  the  Carpenter's  Labora- 
tory have  become  expert  in  the  use  of  the  tools  employed 
in  carpentry  they  will  be  introduced  to  the  Wood-turning 
Laboratory.  The  change  is  radical — from  the  square  to 
the  circle,  from  the  prose  to  the  poetry  of  mechanical 
manipulation.  Carpentry  is  distinguished  for  its  cor- 
ners and  angles,  turnery  for  its  spherical,  cylindrical,  and 
eccentric  forms.  In  these  forms  Nature  abounds  and 
delights,  and  it  is  in  these  forms  that  the  rhythm  of 
mechanics  exists.  It  is  by  the  Turners  that  the  arts  are 
supplied  with  a  thousand  and  one  things  of  use  and 
beauty.  The  machines,  great  and  small,  from  the  loco- 
motive to  the  stocking-knitter — without  which  the  work 
of  the  modern  world  could  not  be  done — these  wonder- 
ful contrivances,  seemingly  more  cunning  than  the  hand 
of  man,  owe  their  very  existence  to  the  turning-lathe. 

The  skilled  instructor  in  this  department  of  the  school 


ff 


THE  WOOD-TURNING   LABORATORY.  33 

loves  to  dwell  upon  the  history  of  turning.  Its  origin  is 
enveloped  in  the  obscurity  of  early  Egyptian  traditions. 
It  is  the  subject  of  one  of  the  oldest  myths,  which  runs 
thus:  "Num,  the  directing  spirit  of  the  universe,  and 
oldest  of  created  beings,  first  exercised  the  potter's  art, 
moulding  the  human  race  on  his  wheel.  Having  made 
the  heavens  and  the  earth,  and  the  air,  and  the  sun  and 
moon,  he  modelled  man  out  of  the  dark  Nilotic  clay,  and 
into  his  nostrils  breathed  the  breath  of  life." 

The  Potter's  Wheel  of  the  ancients  contained  the  germ 
of  the  turning-lathe  found  in  every  modern  machine-shop, 
whether  for  the  manipulation  of  wood  or  iron.  Holtz- 
apffels  has  an  ingenious  speculation  us  to  the  origin  of 
the  invention  of  the  lathe.  In  his  elaborate  work  on 
"  Turning  and  Mechanical  Manipulation  "  he  says, 

"  It  would  appear  probable  that  the  origin  of  the  lathe 
may  be  found  in  the  revolution  given  to  tools  for  pierc- 
ing objects  for  ornament  or  use.  At  first  it  may  be  sup- 
posed that  a  spine  or  thorn  from  a  tree,  a  splinter  of 
bone  or  a  tooth,  was  alone  used  and  pressed  into  the 
work  as  we  should  use  a  brad-awl.  The  process  would 
naturally  be  slow  and  unsuitable  to  hard  materials,  and 
this  probably  suggested  to  the  primitive  mechanic  the 
idea  of  attaching  a  splinter  of  bone  or  flint  to  the  end  of 
a  short  piece  of  stick,  rubbing  which  between  the  palms 
of  his  hands  would  give  a  rotary  motion  to  the  tool." 

Of  the  steps  of  progress  in  invention,  from  the  rude 
turning-tools  of  the  ancients  down  to  the  beginning  of 
the  present  century,  when  Maudslay's  improvement  made 
the  lathe  the  king  of  the  machine-shop,  little  is  known. 
By  the  Greeks  the  invention  of  turning  was  ascribed  to 
Daedalus.  Phidias,  who  produced  the  two  great  master- 
pieces of  Greek  art,  Athene  and  Jupiter  Olympius,  was 

3 


34  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

familiar  with  the  then  existing  system  of  wood-turning. 
In  cutting  figures  on  signets  and  gems  in  such  stones  as 
agate,  carnelian,  chalcedony,  and  amethyst,  the  Greek 
artificers  used  the  wheel  and  the  style.  In  the  abundant 
ornamentation  of  Roman  dwellings  —  their  elaborately 
carved  chairs,  tables,  bedsteads,  sofas,  and  stools — there 
is  ample  evidence  of  a  knowledge  of  the  art  of  turning 
in  wood.  Improvements  were  made  in  turning  -  tools, 
and  fine  ornamental  work  was  done  by  the  artisans  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  to  which  the  cathedrals  and  palaces 
of  the  time  bear  witness.  Later,  during  the  sixteenth 
and  seventeenth  centuries,  turning  became  a  fashiona- 
ble amusement  among  the  French  nobility  and  gentry. 
Louis  XYI.  was  an  expert  locksmith,  and  spent  much 
of  his  royal  time  in  that  pursuit.  The  fashion  extended 
to  England.  George  III.  is  said  to  have  been  an  expert 
wood-turner,  to  have  been  "  learned  in  wheels  and  tread- 
les, chucks  and  chisels ;"  and  as  a  matter  of  course  a  pur- 
suit indulged  by  kings  was  followed  by  many  nobles. 
There  is,  however,  no  evidence  that  those  distinguished 
amateurs  made  any  improvements  in  the  tools  they  used ; 
inventions  and  discoveries  in  this  as  in  all  departments 
of  art  came  from  the  other  end  of  the  social  scale. 
When  the  Spaniards  sacked  Antwerp  in  1585  the  Flem- 
ish silk-weavers  fled  to  England  and  set  up  their  looms 
there ;  and  a  century  later,  upon  the  revocation  of  the 
Edict  of  Nantes,  the  silk  industry  of  England  received  a 
new  accession  of  refugee  artisans  consisting  of  persecuted 
Protestants.  Doubtless  with  the  Flemish  weavers  there 
crossed  the  British  Channel  representatives  of  all  the 
practical  arts,  including  that  of  turning ;  for  in  another 
hundred  years  England  took  the  front  rank  among  na- 
tions in  nearly  all  industrial  pursuits. 


THE  WOOD-TURNING  LABORATORY.  35 

Among  the  great  inventions  and  discoveries  which  dis- 
tinguished the  last  quarter  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
Maudslay's  slide-rest  attachment  to  the  lathe  was  one  of 
the  greatest,  if  not  the  greatest.  Without  it  "Watt's  in- 
vention would  have  been  of  little  more  real  service  to 
mankind  than  the  French  automata  of  the  first  quarter  of 
the  same  century — the  mechanical  peacock  of  Degennes, 
Vaucauson's  duck,  or  Maillardet's  conjurer.  Mr.  Samuel 
Smiles,  in  his  admirable  book  on  "  Iron-workers  and  Tool- 
makers,"  declares  that  this  passion  for  automata,  which 
gave  rise  to  many  highly  ingenious  devices,  "had  the 
effect  of  introducing  among  the  higher  order  of  artists 
habits  of  nice  and  accurate  workmanship  in  executing 
delicate  pieces  of  machinery."  And  he  adds,  "  The  same 
combination  of  mechanical  powers  which  made  the  steel 
spider  crawl,  the  duck  quack,  or  waved  the  tiny  rod  of 
the  magician,  contributed  in  future  years  to  purposes  of 
higher  import — the  wheels  and  pinions,  which  in  these 
automata  almost  eluded  the  human  senses  by  their  mi- 
nuteness, reappearing  in  modern  times  in  the  stupendous 
mechanism  of  our  self-acting  lathes,  spinning-mules,  and 
steam-engines." 

That  there  was  a  logical  connection  between  the  two 
eras  of  mechanical  contrivance  —  that  of  the  ingenious 
automata  and  that  of  the  useful  modern  machines — is 
extremely  probable.  That  the  refugee  artisans  from 
Antwerp  and  from  France  had  a  stimulating  effect  upon 
English  invention  and  discovery  there  can  be  little  doubt ; 
and  that  the  French  automata,  which  were  much  written 
about,  and  exhibited  as  a  triumph  of  mechanical  genius, 
became  known  to  and  exercised  an  influence  upon  the 
minds  of  intelligent  mechanics  is  equally  probable.  We 
are  therefore  surprised  to  find  Mr.  Smiles  arriving  at  a 


36  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

conclusion  in  such  direct  conflict  with  his  general  views 
of  the  gradual  growth  of  inventions,  namely,  "that 
Maudslay's  invention  was  entirely  independent  of  all 
that  had  gone  before,  and  that  he  contrived  it  for  the 
special  purpose  of  overcoming  the  difficulties  which  he 
himself  experienced  in  turning  out  duplicate  parts  in 
large  numbers." 

But  however  this  may  be,  Mr.  Maudslay's  invention 
revolutionized  the  workshop.  Before  its  introduction 
the  tool  of  the  artisan  was  guided  solely  by  muscular 
strength  and  the  dexterity  of  the  hand ;  the  smallest  varia- 
tion in  the  pressure  applied  rendered  the  work  imperfect. 
The  slide-rest  acting  automatically  changed  all  that.  With 
it  thousands  of  duplicates  of  the  most  ponderous,  as  well 
as  the  most  minute  pieces  of  machinery,  are  executed 
with  the  utmost  precision.  Without  it  the  steam-engine, 
whether  locomotive  or  stationary,  would  have  been  hard- 
ly more  than  a  dream  of  genius ;  for  the  monster  that  is 
to  be  fed  with  steam  can  be  properly  constructed  only  by 
automatic  steam-driven  tools ;  or,  as  another  has  expressed 
it,  "  Steam-engines  were  never  properly  made  until  they 
made  themselves." 

Ten  minutes  are  thus  agreeably  and  profitably  occu- 
pied by  the  instructor  in  a  review  of  the  history  of  a 
single  invention,  and  its  relations  to  the  whole  field  of 
mechanical  work. 

Another  branch  of  the  lesson  consists  of  an  inquiry  into 
the  natural  history,  qualities,  value,  and  common  uses  of 
the  wood  which  is  to  be  the  material  of  the  day's  ma- 
nipulation— black-walnut.  Holding  a  piece  of  the  pur- 
plish brown  wood  high  in  his  hand  the  instructor  dis- 
charges, as  it  were,  a  volley  of  questions  at  the  class, 
"What  is  it  called?"  "Where  is  it  found?"  "How 


THE   WOOD-TURNING  LABORATORY.  37 

large  does  the  tree  grow?"  "For  what  is  the  wood 
chiefly  used  ?"  Up  go  a  dozen  hands.  The  owner  of  one 
of  the  hands  is  recognized,  and  he  rises  to  tell  all  about 
it,  but  is  only  allowed  to  say  "  black-walnut."  The  next 
speaker  is  permitted  to  say  that  "the  black -walnut  is 
found  all  over  North  America ;"  the  next  that  it  is  more 
abundant  west  of  the  Alleghanies,  and  most  abundant  in 
the  valley  of  the  Mississippi ;  the  next  that  in  a  forest 
it  has  a  limbless  trunk  from  thirty  to  fifty  feet  high, 
but  in  the  "  open  "  branches  near  the  ground ;  the  next 
that  it  is  extensively  used  in  house  -  finishing,  in  furni- 
ture, for  all  kinds  of  cabinet-work,  and  especially  for 
gunstocks. 

Further  inquiry  elicits  the  information  that  the  black- 
walnut  is  a  quick-growing,  large  tree ;  that  its  wood  is 
hard,  fine-grained,  durable,  and  susceptible  of  a  high  pol- 
ish, and  that  through  use  and  exposure  it  turns  dark,  and 
with  great  age  becomes  almost  black.  One  student  de- 
scribes the  leaves,  another  the  fruit  or  nuts,  and  states 
that  they  are  used  in  dyeing;  a  third  states  that  the 
black-walnut  is  a  great  favorite  for  planting  in  the  tree- 
less tracts  of  the  West,  on  account  of  its  rapid  growth 
and  the  value  of  its  timber.  When  the  subject  appears 
to  be  nearly  exhausted,  a  boy  at  the  farther  end  of  one  of 
the  forms  rises  timidly  and  tells  the  story  of  the  late  Mr. 
W.  C.  Bryant's  great  black-walnut-tree  at  Roslyn,  Long 
Island.  He  concludes,  excitedly,  "  It  is  one  hundred  and 
seventy  years  old  and  twenty-five  feet  in  circumference."* 

*  "At  Ellerslie,  the  birthplace  of  "Wallace,  exists  an  oak  which 
is  celebrated  as  having  been  a  remarkable  object  in  his  time,  and 
which  can  scarcely,  therefore,  be  less  than  seven  hundred  years  old. 
Near  Staines  there  is  a  yew-tree  older  than  Magna  Charta  (1215),  and 
the  yews  at  Fountains  Abbey,  in  Yorkshire,  are  probably  more  than 


38  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

The  timid  boy  dwells  upon  his  story  of  the  "  big "  tree 
with  evident  fondness,  and  his  eyes  dilate  with  satisfac- 
tion as  he  resumes  his  seat.  The  circumstance  of  the 
great  age  no  less  than  the  enormous  size  of  the  tree  has 
captivated  his  imagination.  The  discriminating  instruct- 
or will  not  fail  to  note  such  incidents  of  the  lesson.  It 
is  through  them  that  the  special  aptitudes  of  students  are 
disclosed.  The  instructor  will  always  bear  prominently 
in  mind  that  the  purpose  of  the  school  is  not  to  make 
mechanics  but  men.  Nor  will  he  forget,  as  Buckle  re- 
marked, that  Shakespeare  preceded  Newton.  Buckle  pays 
a  glowing  tribute  to  the  usefulness  of  the  imagination. 
He  says, "  Shakespeare  and  the  poets  sowed  the  seed  which 
Newton  and  the  philosophers  reaped.  .  .  .  They  drew 
attention  to  nature,  and  thus  became  the  real  founders  of 
all  natural  science.  They  did  even  more  than  this.  They 
first  impregnated  the  mind  of  England  with  bold  and 
lofty  conceptions.  They  taught  the  men  of  their  gener- 
ation to  crave  after  the  unseen." 

Disraeli,  in  his  matchless  biography  of  Lord  George 
Bentinck,  in  summing  up  the  character  of  a  great  Eng- 
lish statesman  is  equally  emphatic  in  praise  of  the  imagi- 
nation as  a  practical  quality.  He  says, 

"  Thus  gifted  and  thus  accomplished,  Sir  Robert  Peel 
had  a  great  deficiency  —  he  was  without  imagination. 
Wanting  imagination,  he  wanted  prescience.  No  one 
was  more  sagacious  when  dealing  with  the  circumstances 
before  him;  no  one  penetrated  the  present  with  more 
acuteness  and  accuracy.  His  judgment  was  faultless, 

twelve  hundred  years  old.  Eight  olive-trees  still  exist  in  the  Garden 
of  Olives  at  Jerusalem  which  are  known  to  be  at  least  eight  hundred 
years  old." — "Vegetable  Physiology."  By  William  B.  Carpenter, 
M.  D. ,  F.  R.  S. ,  F.  G.  S.  London :  Bell  and  Daldy.  1865.  p.  78. 


THE   WOOD-TURNING  LABORATORY.  39 

provided  lie  had  not  to  deal  with  the  future.  Thus  it 
happened  through  his  long  career,  that  while  he  always 
was  looked  upon  as  the  most  prudent  and  safest  of  lead- 
ers, he  ever,  after  a  protracted  display  of  admirable  tac- 
tics, concluded  his  campaigns  by  surrendering  at  discre- 
tion. He  was  so  adroit  that  he  could  prolong  resistance 
even  beyond  its  term,  but  so  little  foreseeing  that  often 
in  the  very  triumph  of  his  manoauvres  he  found  himself 
in  an  untenable  position." 

The  timid  boy  has  imagination ;  if  he  has  application 
and  the  logical  faculty  he  may  become  an  inventor,  or  he 
may  become  an  artist — an  engraver  or  a  designer  of  works 
of  art — or  he  may  become  a  man  of  letters.  To  the  man 
of  vivid  imagination  and  industry  all  avenues  are  open ; 
Disraeli's  wonderful  career  offers  a  striking  illustration 
of  the  truth  of  this  proposition.  The  true  purpose  of 
education  is  the  harmonious  development  of  the  whole 
being,  and  the  purpose  of  this  turning  laboratory  is  to  edu- 
cate these  twenty-four  boys,  not  to  make  turners  of  them. 

The  laboratory  is  a  labyrinth  of  belts,  large  and  small, 
of  wheels,  big  and  little,  of  pulleys  and  lathes.  A  stu- 
dent, at  a  word  from  the  instructor,  moves  a  lever  a  few 
inches,  and  the  breath  of  life  is  breathed  into  the  compli- 
cated mass  of  machinery.  The  throbbing  heart  of  the 
engine  far  away  sends  the  currents  of  its  power  along 
shafting  and  pulleys.  The  dull,  monotonous  whir  of 
steam-driven  machinery  salutes  the  ear,  and  the  twenty- 
four  students  take  their  places  at  the  lathes.  They  are 
from  fourteen  to  seventeen  years  of  age,  and  range  in 
height  from  undersize  to  "  full-grown."  They  look  like 
little  men.  Their  faces  are  grave,  showing  a  sense  of  re- 
sponsibility. They  are  to  handle  edge-tools  on  wood  rapid- 
ly revolved  by  the  power  of  steam.  There  is  peril  in  an 


40  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

uncautious  step,  and  death  lurks  in  the  shafting.  Of  these 
dangers  they  have  been  repeatedly  warned  ;  and  there  is 
in  their  bearing  that  manifestation  of  wary  coolness  which 
we  call  "nerve,"  and  which  in  an  emergency  develops 
into  a  lofty  heroism  capable  of  sublime  self-sacrifice. 

This  is  the  very  essence  of  education,  its  informing  spir- 
it. The  student  no  longer  thinks  merely  of  becoming  an 
expert  turner ;  he  thinks  of  becoming  a  man !  All  the 
powers  of  his  mind  are  roused  to  vigorous  action ;  the 
imagination  illumes  the  path,  and  the  reason,  following 
with  firm  but  cautious  step,  drives  straight  to  the  mark. 
Rapid  development  results  from  the  combination  of  prac- 
tice with  theory — rapid  because  orderly,  or  natural.  The 
knowledge  acquired  is  at  once  assimilated,  and  becomes 
a  mental  resource,  subject  to  draft  like  a  bank  account. 
But  unlike  a  bank  account  it  increases  in  the  ratio  of  the 
frequency  with  which  drafts  are  made  upon  it,  and  the 
result  is  the  student  leaves  school  at  seventeen  years  of 
age  with  the  reasoning  experience  of  an  ordinarily  edu- 
cated man  of  forty. 

The  lesson  has  been  announced  by  the  instructor,  its 
chief  points  stated  and  analyzed,  its  place  in  the  scale  (so 
to  speak)  of  the  art  of  turnery  defined,  its  educational 
value  to  the  mind,  the  hand,  and  the  eye  shown,  and  the 
points  of  difficulty  involved  so  emphasized  as  to  lead  to 
painstaking  care  in  the  execution  of  crucial  parts.  The 
new  tool  required  by  the  lesson  is  handled  in  presence  of 
the  waiting  class  by  the  instructor ;  the  time  of  its  inven- 
tion stated  ;  the  name  of  its  inventor  given ;  the  method 
of  its  manufacture  described  ;  and  how  to  sharpen,  take 
care  of,  and  use  it  explained  with  such  minuteness  of  de- 
tail as  to  insure  the  making  of  a  permanent  impression 
upon  the  minds  of  students. 


THE   WOOD-TURNING  LABORATORY.  43 

The  wood-turner's  case  contains  more  than  a  hundred 
tools,  perhaps  a  hundred  and  fifty,  but  not  more  than  a 
score  of  them  are  fundamental ;  the  others  are  subsidiary, 
and  require  very  little  if  any  explanation. 

The  lesson  may  be  one  in  simple  turning,  as  a  table-leg, 
the  round  of  a  chair,  or  parts  of  a  section  of  a  miniature 
garden-fence ;  or  it  may  be  a  set  of  pulleys,  or  patterns 
for  various  forms  of  pipe.  The  pieces  of  wood  to  be 
wrought  or  manipulated  lie  at  the  feet  of  the  student, 
and  the  working  drawing  (drawn  by  the  student  himself) 
lies  on  the  bench  before  him.  The  piece  of  wood  to  be 
turned  first  is  adjusted,  the  student  touches  a  lever  over 
his  head  which  sets  the  lathe  in  motion,  takes  the  required 
tool  in  hand,  and  the  work  begins.  Guided  by  the  auto- 
matic slide-rest,  the  sharp  point  of  the  tool  chips  away 
the  revolving  wood  until  it  assumes  the  form  of  the 
drawing  lying  under  the  eye  of  the  operator.  Thus  the 
lesson  proceeds  to  the  end  of  the  prescribed  period — two 
hours.  The  master  watches  every  step  of  its  progress. 
If  a  student  is  puzzled  he  receives  prompt  assistance,  so 
that  no  time  may  be  lost.  Indeed  the  relations  between 
instructor  and  students  are  such,  or  ought  to  be  such,  that 
the  question  is  asked  before  the  puzzled  mind  falls  into  a 
rut  of  profitless  speculation  through  revolving  in  a  circle. 
But  if  the  true  sequential  method  of  study  is  followed 
the  student  rarely  fails,  from  the  vantage  ground  of  a 
step  securely  taken,  to  comprehend  the  nature  of  the 
next  step  in  the  regular  order  of  succession.  This  is  the 
Russian  system,  and  it  is  the  method  of  the  wood-turnery 
as  well  as  of  every  department  of  the  Manual  Training 
School.  Hence  a  certain  tool  having  been  mastered, 
the  next  tool  in  the  regular  order  of  succession  is  more 
easily  mastered,  because  (1)  each  tool  contains  a  hint  of 

3* 


44  MANUAL  TBAINING. 

the  nature  of  its  successor,  and  (2)  each  addition  to  the 
student's  stock  of  knowledge  confers  an  increased  capa- 
bility of  comprehension. 

When  the  lesson  is  concluded  the  whir  of  the  machin- 
ery ceases,  and  a  great  silence  falls  upon  the  class  as  the 
students  assemble  about  the  instructor,  each  presenting 
his  piece  of  work.  This  is  the  moment  of  friendly  criti- 
cism. The  instructor  handles  each  specimen,  comments 
upon  the  character  of  the  workmanship,  points  out  its 
defects,  and  calls  for  criticisms  from  the  class.  These 
are  freely  given.  There  is  an  animated  discussion,  involv- 
ing explanations  on  the  part  of  the  instructor  of  the 
various  causes  of  defects,  and  suggestions  as  to  suitable 
methods  of  amendment.  Then  the  pieces  of  work  are 
marked  according  to  the  various  degrees  of  excellence 
they  exhibit,  and  the  class  is  dismissed. 


THE  FOUNDING  LABORATORY.  45 


CHAPTER  VII. 
THE  FOUNDING  LABORATORY. 

The  Iron  Age. — Iron  the  King  of  Metals.— Locke's  Apothegm. — The 
Moulder's  Art  is  Fundamental. — History  of  Founding. — Remains 
of  Bronze  Castings  in  Egypt,  Greece,  and  Assyria. — Layard's  Dis- 
coveries.— The  Greek  Sculptors.— The  Colossal  Statue  of  Apollo 
at  Rhodes. — The  Great  Bells  of  History. — Moulding  and  Casting 
a  Pulley. — Description  of  the  Process,  Step  by  Step. — The  Furnace 
Fire. — Pouring  the  Hot  Metal  into  the  Moulds. — A  Pen  Picture  of 
the  Laboratory. — Thus  were  the  Hundred  Gates  of  Babylon  cast. — 
Neglect  of  the  Practical  Arts  by  Herodotus.  —  How  Slavery  has 
degraded  Labor. — How  Manual  Training  is  to  dignify  it. 

As  we  enter  the  Founding  Laboratory  we  recall  Locke's 
apothegm:  "He  who  first  made  known  the  use  of  that 
contemptible  mineral  [iron]  may  be  truly  styled  the  fa- 
ther of  arts  and  the  author  of  plenty."  We  reflect,  too, 
that  the  mineral  that  has  given  its  name  to  an  age  of  the 
world — our  age — is  worthy  of  careful  study. 

The  Founding  Laboratory,  like  all  the  laboratories  of 
the  school,  is  designed  for  twenty-four  students.  There 
are  twenty-four  moulding-benches,  combined  with  troughs 
for  sand,  and  a  cupola  furnace  where  from  five  hundred 
to  one  thousand  pounds  of  iron  may  be  melted. 

The  students  we  lately  parted  from  in  the  "Wood-turn- 
ing Laboratory  are  here.  Their  training  has  been  confined 
to  manipulations  in  wood ;  they  are  now  to  be  made  ac- 
quainted with  iron — iron  in  considerable  masses.  They 
should  know  something,  in  outline,  of  the  history  of  the 
king  of  metals  in  the  Founding  Laboratory.  The  instruct- 
or speaks  familiarly  to  them,  somewhat  as  follows : 


46  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

The  art  of  the  founder  is  fundamental  in  its  nature. 
The  arts  of  founding  and  forging  are,  indeed,  the  essen- 
tial preliminary  steps  which  lead  to  the  finer  manipula- 
tions entering  into  all  metal  constructions.  Whether 
forging  preceded  founding  or  founding  forging  is  imma- 
terial; both  arts  are  as  old  as  recorded  history — much 
older  indeed.  Moulding,  which  is  the  first  step  in  the 
founder's  art,  should  be  among  the  oldest  of  human  dis- 
coveries, since  man  had  only  to  take  in  his  hand  a  lump 
of  moist  clay  to  receive  ocular  evidence  of  his  power  to 
give  it  any  desired  form. 

Moulding  for  casting  is  closely  allied  to  the  potter's 
art.  The  potter  selects  a  clay  suitable  for  the  vessel  he 
desires  to  mould,  and  the  founder  prepares  a  composition 
of  sand  and  loam  of  the  proper  consistency  to  serve  as  a 
matrix  for  the  vessel  he  desires  to  cast. 

The  art  of  founding  was  doubtless  first  applied  to 
bronze.  The  ruins  of  Egypt  and  Greece  abound  in  the 
remains  of  bronze  castings,  an  analysis  of  which  reveals 
about  the  same  relative  proportions  of  tin  and  copper 
in  use  now  for  the  best  qualities  of  statuary  bronze.  The 
bronze  castings  of  the  Assyrians  show  a  high  degree  of 
art.  Many  specimens  of  this  fine  work  of  the  Assyrian 
founder  have  been  rescued  from  the  ruins  of  long-buried 
Nineveh — buried  so  long  that  Xenophon  and  his  ten 
thousand  Greeks  marched  over  its  site  more  than  two 
thousand  years  ago  without  making  any  sign  of  a  knowl- 
edge of  its  existence,  and  Alexander  fought  a  great  bat- 
tle in  its  neighborhood  in  apparent  ignorance  of  the  fact 
that  he  trod  on  classic  ground.  But  there,  delving  be- 
neath the  rubbish  and  decayed  vegetation  of  four  thou- 
sand years  or  more,  Layard  found  great  treasures  of  art 
in  the  palaces  of  Sennacherib  and  other  Assyrian  mon- 


THE   FOUNDING  LABORATORY.  47 

arclis — vases,  jars,  bronzes,  glass-bottles^  carved  ivory  and 
mother-of-pearl  ornaments,  engraved  gems,  bells,  dishes, 
and  eau-rings  of  exquisite  workmanship,  besides  arms  and 
a  variety  of  tools  of  the  practical  arts. 

In  Greece,  in  the  time  of  Praxiteles,  bronze  was 
moulded  into  forms  of  rare  beauty  and  grandeur.  The 
colossal  statue  of  Apollo  at  Rhodes  affords  an  example 
of  the  magnitude  of  the  Greek  castings.  It  was  cast  in 
several  parts,  and  was  over  one  hundred  feet  high. 
About  fifty  years  after  its  erection  it  was  destroyed  by 
an  earthquake.  Its  fragments  lay  on  the  ground  where 
it  fell,  nearly  a  thousand  years ;  but  when  the  Saracens 
gathered  them  together  and  sold  them,  there  was  a'  suffi- 
cient quantity  to  load  a  caravan  consisting  of  nine  hun- 
dred camels.  One  of  the  finest  existing  specimens  of 
ancient  bronze  casting  is  that  of  a  statue  of  Mercury  dis- 
covered at  Herculaneum,  and  now  to  be  seen  in  the  mu- 
seum at  Naples. 

During  the  era  of  church  bells  the  founder  exercised 
his  art  in  casting  bells  of  huge  dimensions.  Early  in  the 
fifteenth  century  a  bell  weighing  about  fifty  tons  was 
cast  at  Pekin,  China.  This  bell  still  exists,  is  fourteen 
and  a  half  feet  in  height  and  thirteen  feet  in  diameter. 

o 

But  the  greatest  bell-founding  feat  was,  however,  that  of 
1733,  in  casting  the  bell  of  Moscow.  This  bell  is  nineteen 
feet  three  inches  in  height  and  sixty  feet  nine  inches  in 
circumference,  and  weighs  443,772  pounds.  The  value  of 
the  metal  entering  into  its  construction  is  estimated  at 
$300,000.  It  long  lay  in  a  pit  in  the  midst  of  the  Krem- 
lin, but  Czar  Nicholas  caused  it  to  be  raised,  mounted 
upon  a  granite  pedestal,  and  converted  into  a  chapel. 
The  methods  of  casting  employed  by  the  founder  of 
this  king  of  bells  are  not  known.  The  bell  has  outlived 


48  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

the  Works  where  it  was  cast.  The  melting  and  handling 
of  two  hundred  and  twenty  tons  of  bronze  metal  certain- 
ly required  appointments,  mechanical  and  otherwise,  of 
the  most  stupendous  character ;  and  the  existence  of  such 
Works  presupposes  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  the 
most  minute  details  of  the  founder's  art,  since  the  natu- 
ral order  of  development  is  from  the  less  to  the  greater. 
That  is  to  say,  the  founder  who  could  manipulate  scores 
of  tons  of  metal  in  a  single  great  casting  could  doubtless 
manipulate  a  few  pounds  of  metal ;  or,  the  founder  who 
could  cast  a  bell  weighing  two  hundred  and  twenty  tons, 
could  cast  pots  and  kettles  and  hundreds  of  other  little 
useful  things.  What  we  hope  to  do  in  this  school  Found- 
ing Laboratory  is  to  gain  a  correct  conception  of  great 
things  by  making  ourselves  thoroughly  familiar  with 
many  forms  of  little  things  in  moulding  and  casting. 

The  lesson  of  the  day  is  the  moulding  and  casting  of  a 
plain  pulley.  In  the  Pattern  Laboratory  each  student  has 
already  executed  a  pattern  of  the  pulley  to  be  cast,  and 
the  pattern  lies  before  him  on  his  moulding-bench.  Now 
the  instructor,  at  the  most  conspicuous  bench  in  the 
room,  proceeds  to  execute  the  first  part  of  the  lesson, 
which  consists  of  moulding.  Taking  from  the  trough  a 
handful  of  sand,  he  explains  that  it  is  only  by  the  use  of 
sand  possessing  certain  properties,  as  a  degree  of  moist- 
ure, but  not  enough  to  vaporize  when  the  metal  is  poured 
in,  and  a  small  admixture  of  clay,  but  not  enough  to 
make  of  the  compound  a  loam,  that  the  mould  can  be 
saved  from  ruin  through  vaporization,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  given  the  essential  quality  of  adhesiveness  or  plas- 
ticity. In  the  course  of  this  explanation  he  remarks 
that  the  sand  used  in  some  parts  of  the  mould  is  mixed 
with  pulverized  bituminous  coal,  coke,  or  plumbago,  in 


THE  FOUNDING  LABOKATOKY.  51 

order  to  give  a  smoother  surface.  Now  he  takes  the 
"flask"  —  a  wooden  apparatus  containing  the  sand  in 
which  the  mould  is  made — and  explains  its  construction 
and  use.  From  this  point — the  sifting  of  facing  sand  on 
the  turn-over  board,  to  the  final  one  of  replacing  the  cope 
and  securing  it  with  keys  or  clamps — every  step  of  the 
process  is  carefully  gone  through  with  and  explained. 

Meantime,  before  the  moulding  lesson  has  proceeded 
far,  a  fire  is  kindled  in  the  furnace  and  it  is  "  charged ;" 
that  is  to  say,  filled  with  alternate  layers  of  coal  and  pig- 
iron,  with  occasional  fluxes  of  limestone.  During  the 
process  of  charging  the  furnace  the  instructor  explains 
the  principle  of  its  construction,  and  shows  how  it  oper- 
ates. At  every  subsequent  rest  in  moulding  the  students 
surround  the  furnace  to  witness  the  progress  of  the  fire, 
the  position  of  the  layers  of  coal,  and  the  state  of  com- 
bustion. They  pass  the  furnace  in  procession,  and  each 
peeps  in  through  the  isinglass  windows  upon  the  glow- 
ing fire,  asks  a  question,  or  a  dozen  questions,  perhaps, 
and  gives  place  to  the  next  student  in  line.  In  the  in- 
tervals of  these  visits  to  the  furnace  the  work  of  mak- 
ing twenty -four  moulds  goes  on  under  the  eye  of  the 
instructor,  the  students  explaining  each  step  in  advance. 
He  is  omnipresent,  answering  a  question  here,  prevent- 
ing a  fatal  mistake  there,  cheering,  inspiring,  and  guiding 
the  whole  class,  but  never  insisting  upon  a  slavish  ad- 
herence to  strict  identity  in  processes.  And  it  is  to  be 
noted  that  there  is  in  moulding  more  latitude  for  inde- 
pendence than  in  almost  any  other  mechanical  manipu- 
lation. Certain  essentials  there  are,  of  course,  but  these 
being  secured,  the  student  may  exercise  his  ingenuity  in 
the  execution  of  many  minor  details.  That  there  is  con- 
siderable individuality  in  the  class  may  be  seen  by  obser- 


52  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

vation  of  the  different  methods  employed  by  the  several 
young  moulders  to  compass  various  details  of  the  same 
general  process. 

The  moulds  are  nearly  completed.  The  instructor 
assists  a  student  who  is  found  to  be  a  little  behind  in  his 
work,  and  interposes  a  warning  against  haste  at  the  criti- 
cal moment.  Within  the  space  of  a  period  of  ten  min- 
utes the  twenty -four  patterns  are  "  tapped,"  loosened, 
and  lifted  from  their  beds,  imperfections  are  carefully 
repaired  with  the  trowel,  or  some  other  tool,  channels  to 
the  pouring  holes  are  cut  in  the  surfaces,  the  pieces  re- 
maining in  the  copes  are  removed,  the  particles  of  loose 
sand  are  blown  from  the  surfaces  of  the  moulds,  and  the 
twenty-four  copes  are  replaced,  and  secured  with  keys  or 
clamps. 

A  final  visit  is  now  made  to  the  furnace.  The  fusion 
is  found  to  be  complete;  the  "pigs"  are  converted  into 
a  molten  pool.  It  only  remains  to  pour  the  hot  metal 
into  the  moulds.  The  instructor  seizes  an  iron  ladle  lined 
with  clay,  holds  it  under  the  spout  of  the  furnace  reser- 
voir until  it  is  nearly  filled  with  the  glowing  fluid,  lifts 
and  carries  it  carefully  across  the  room,  and  pours  the 
contents  into  a  mould.  Then  the  students,  in  squads, 
after  having  been  cautioned  as  to  the  deadly  nature  of 
the  molten  mass  they  are  to  handle,  follow  the  example 
of  their  instructor.  At  this  moment  the  laboratory  ap- 
peals powerfully  to  the  imagination.  The  picture  it  pre- 
sents is  weird  in  the  extreme.  From  the  open  furnace 
door  a  stream  of  crimson  light  floods  the  room.  The 
students  wear  paper  caps  and  are  bare-armed ;  their  faces 
glow  in  the  reflected  glare  of  the  furnace-fire ;  they  march 
up  to  the  furnace  one  by  one,  each  receiving  a  ladleful 
of  steaming  hot  metal,  and  countermarch  to  their  benches, 


THE  FOUNDING   LABORATORY.  55 

where  they  pour  the  contents  of  their  ladles  into  the 
moulds. 

Still  holding  his  empty  ladle  in  his  hand,  the  instruct- 
or watches  the  progress  of  the  lesson  with  keen  interest 
until  the  last  stream  of  metal  has  found  its  way  into 
the  throat  of  the  last  mould.  He  recalls  the  story  of 
Vulcan,  the  God  of  Fire,  and  of  all  the  arts  and  indus- 
tries dependent  upon  it,  and  wonders  why  he  was  not 
depicted  pouring  tons  of  molten  metal  in  the  foundery 
rather  than  sledge  in  hand  at  the  forge.  Then  he  regards 
the  class  with  a  benignant  expression  of  pride,  begs  for 
silence,  and  says,  "  Thus  were  the  hundred  brazen  gates 
of  ancient  Babylon  cast  long  before  the  beginning  of 
the  Christian  era."  Herodotus  did  not  think  to  tell  us 
much  of  the  state  of  the  useful  arts  in  the  early  time  of 
which  he  wrote,  but  the  brazen  gates  attracted  his  atten- 
tion, and  he  described  them :  "  At  the  end  of  each  street 
a  little  gate  is  found  in  the  wall  along  the  river-side,  in 
number  equal  to  the  streets,  and  they  are  all  made  of 
brass,  and  lead  down  to  the  edge  of  the  river."  Could 
Herodotus  have  foreseen  what  a  deep  interest  his  readers 
of  this  remote  time  would  take  in  the  history  of  the  use- 
ful arts,  he  would  have  written  less  about  the  walls,  pal- 
aces, and  temples  of  Babylon,  and  more  about  the  artif- 
icers. He  would  have  begged  admission  to  the  forges 
and  founderies  of  the  city;  he  would  have  visited  the 
Assyrian  founder  at  his  work,  questioned  him  about  his 
processes,  and  set  down  his  answers  with  painstaking 
care.  Then  he  would  have  sought  an  introduction  to 
the  smithy,  and  from  the  grimy  forger  learned  what  he 
could  tell  of  his  art  and  of  kindred  arts.  So  the  father 
of  history  might  have  made  an  enduring  record  of  the 
real  things  which  throughout  all  time  have  contributed 


56  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

to  the  advancement  of  the  human  race,  rather  than  of 
events  growing  out  of  the  ambitions  and  passions  of  men 
— the  rise  and  fall  of  kingdoms  and  empires,  the  varying 
fortune  of  battle,  the  treacheries,  crimes,  and  brutalities 
of  rulers,  and  the  cringing  submission  of  millions  of  sub- 
jects. But,  alas,  the  founders  and  smiths,  and  all  the 
other  cunning  artificers  of  the  vast  empire  of  Syria,  were 
slaves  !  and  through  their  ancestry  for  unnumbered  gen- 
erations the  stigma  of  slavery  had  attached  to  labor. 
Ay,  on  the  bare  backs  of  the  founders  of  Babylon's  bra- 
zen gates  the  popular  scorn  of  labor  had  doubtless  left  its 
livid  brand. 

With  these  pariahs  of  Assyrian  society,  these  outcasts 
of  the  social  circle,  the  great  Greek  historian  could  not 
even  speak.  Descended  from  a  long  line  of  noble  Hali- 
carnassian  families,  Herodotus  felt  all  the  prejudices  of 
the  hereditary  aristocracy  of  his  country.  Hence  he  di- 
lates upon  the  wonders  of  Babylon,  but  is  silent  as  to  its 
architects  and  artisans.  He  describes  with  great  minute- 
ness of  detail  the  tower  of  Jupiter  Belus,  but  gives  no 
hint  of  the  name  of  its  designer  and  builder.  He  de- 
clares that  Babylon  was  adorned  in  a  manner  surpass- 
ing any  city  of  the  time,  but  in  regard  to  the  artificers 
through  whose  ingenuity  and  skill  such  pleasing  effects 
were  produced  he  gives  no  sign. 

The  silence  of  Herodotus  on  the  subject  of  the  use- 
ful arts  in  Babylon  does  not  indicate  a  want  of  appreci- 
ation of  their  value,  but  merely  shows  contempt  of  the 
Assyrian  artisan,  and  this  not  because  he  was  an  artisan, 
but  because  he  was  a  slave.  The  story  of  Solon  and 
Cro3sus,  which  antedates  Herodotus,  whether  true  or  a 
myth,  shows  that  iron  and  artisanship  were  appreciated 
by  both  Greeks  and  barbarians.  When  Croesus  had 


THE  FOUNDING  LABORATORY.  57 

exhibited  to  the  Greek  sage  his  vast  hoard  of  treasures, 
Solon  said,  "  If  another  comes  that  hath  better  iron  than 
you  he  will  be  master  of  all  this  gold."  Here  is  a  recog- 
nition of  the  immense  value  of  the  arts  of  smelting  and 
forging,  coupled  with  a  contemptuous  silence  regarding 
as  well  the  smelter  and  the  smith  as  the  rank  and  file 
of  the  armies  who  should  wield  the  swords  and  spears 
drawn  by  science  from  the  recesses  of  the  earth,  and  by 
art  wrought  and  tempered  at  the  forge.  Through  all 
the  early  ages  the  brand  and  scorn  of  slavery  adhered  to 
labor,  while  the  arts,  the  products  of  labor,  were  often 
deified.  Thus  the  Scythian,  who  from  a  grinning  skull 
drank  the  warm  blood  of  his  captive,  regarded  with  super- 
stitious awe  as  a  god  the  iron  sword  with  which  he  cut 
off  his  captive's  head. 

It  was  only  with  the  revival  of  learning,  after  the  in- 
tellectual and  moral  gloom  of  the  Dark  Ages,  that  labor 
began  slowly  to  lift  its  bowed  head  and  assert  itself. 
But  it  does  not  yet  stand  erect.  It  still  stoops  as  if  in 
the  presence  of  a  master.  Every  now  and  then  it  winces 
and  cringes  as  if  the  sound  of  the  descending  lash  smote 
its  ear.  It  remains  for  you,  students  in  this  school  of 
the  arts — all  the  arts  that  make  mankind  good  and  great 
— it  remains  for  you  to  brush  away  from  the  tear-stained 
face  of  labor  all  the  shadows  accumulated  there  through 
all  the  dead  ages  of  oppression  and  slavery.  It  remains 
for  you  to  make  labor  bold  by  making  it  intelligent.  It 
remains  for  you  to  dignify  and  ennoble  labor  by  bestow- 
ing upon  it  the  ripest  scientific  and  artistic  culture,  and 
devoting  to  its  service  the  best  energies  of  body  and 
mind. 


58  MANUAL  TBAINING. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
THE  FORGING  LABORATORY. 

Twenty-four  manly-looking  Boys  with  Sledge-hammer  in  Hand— 
their  Muscle  and  Brawn.— The  Pride  of  Conscious  Strength. — 
The  Story  of  the  Origin  of  an  Empire.— The  Greater  Empire  of 
Mechanics. — The  Smelter  and  the  Smith  the  Bulwark  of  the  Brit- 
ish Government. — Coal — its  Modern  Aspects;  its  Early  History; 
Superstition  regarding  its  Use. — Dud.  Dudley  utilizes  "Pit-coal" 
for  Smelting — the  Story  of  his  Struggles ;  his  Imprisonment  and 
Death. — The  English  People  import  their  Pots  and  Kettles. — "The 
Blast  is  on  and  the  Forge  Fire  sings." — The  Lesson,  first  on  the 
Black-board,  then  in  Red-hot  Iron  on  the  Anvil.— Striking  out  the 
Anvil  Chorus — the  Sparks  fly  whizzing  through  the  Air. — The 
Mythological  History  of  Iron.— The  Smith  in  Feudal  Times — His 
Versatility. — History  of  Damascus  Steel. — We  should  reverence 
the  early  Inventors. — The  Useful  Arts  finer  than  the  Fine  Arts. — 
The  Ancient  Smelter  and  Smith,  and  the  Students  in  the  Manual 
Training  School. 

THIS  is  the  Forging  Laboratory.  It  is  only  a  few  steps 
from  the  laboratory  for  founding,  where  we  lately  saw 
twenty-four  students  taking  off  their  leather  aprons  after 
a  two  hours'  lesson  in  moulding  and  casting.  Here  we 
find,  also,  twenty-four  students,  but  not  the  twenty-four 
we  saw  in  the  laboratory  for  founding.  This  class  is 
more  advanced.  The  boys  are  a  trifle  taller;  they  show 
more  muscle,  more  strength,  and  bear  themselves  with  a 
Btill  more  confident  air. 

In  the  Forging  Laboratory  there  are  twenty-four  forges 
with  all  essential  accessaries,  as  anvils,  tubs,  and  sets  of 
ordinary  hand-tools. 


THE   FORGING  LABORATORY.  61 

The  students,  with  coats  off  and  sleeves  rolled  above 
their  elbows,  in  pairs,  as  smith  and  helper,  stand,  sledge 
and  tongs  in  hand,  at  twelve  of  the  forges.  They  are 
manly-looking  boys.  Their  feet  are  firmly  planted,  their 
bodies  erect,  their  heads  thrown  a  little  back.  Their 
arms  show  brawn ;  the  muscles  stand  out  in  relief  from 
the  solid  flesh.  Their  faces  express  the  pride  of  con- 
scious strength,  and  their  eyes  show  animation. 

As  we  regard  the  class  with  a  sympathetic  thrill  of 
satisfaction,  the  story  of  the  origin  of  the  Turkish  Em- 
pire is  recalled :  "  A  race  of  slaves,  living  in  the  mount- 
ain regions  of  Asia,  are  employed  by  a  powerful  Khan 
to  forge  weapons  for  his  use  in  war.  A  bold  chief  per- 
suades them  to  use  the  weapons  forged  for  a  master  to 
secure  their  own  deliverance.  For  centuries  after  they 
had  thus  conquered  their  freedom,  the  Turkish  people 
celebrated  their  liberation  by  an  annual  ceremony  in 
which  a  piece  of  iron  was  heated  in  the  fire,  and  a  smith's 
hammer  successively  handled  by  the  prince  and  his  no- 
bles." 

The  greatest  empire  in  the  world  to-day  is  the  em- 
pire of  the  art  of  mechanism,  and  its  most  potent  instru- 
ment is  iron.  Once  the  perpetuity  of  governments  de- 
pended upon  the  mere  possession  of  the  dingy  ore. 
When  Elizabeth  came  to  the  throne,  in  the  middle  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  England  was  almost  defenceless, 
owing  to  the  short  supply  of  iron.  Spain,  much  better 
equipped,  hence  relied  confidently  upon  her  ability  to 
subdue  the  English.  But  the  Virgin  Queen,  compre- 
hending the  nature  of  the  crisis,  imported  iron  from 
Sweden  and  encouraged  the  Sussex  forges,  and  the  Span- 
ish Armada  was  defeated.  Thus  the  smelter  and  the 
smith  became  the  bulwark  of  the  British  government. 


62  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

But  at  an  earlier  period  the  fraternity  of  smiths  gave 
direction  to  the  course  of  empire.  The  secret  of  the 
easy  conquest  of  Britain  by  the  Normans  was  their  supe- 
rior armor.  They  were  clad  in  steel,  and  their  horses 
were  shod  with  iron.  The  chief  farrier  of  William  be- 
came an  earl ;  and  he  was  proud  of  his  origin,  for  his  coat 
of  arms  bore  six  horseshoes. 

Iron  and  civilization  are  terms  of  equivalent  import. 
Iron  is  king,  and  the  smelter  and  smith  are  his  chief 
ministers.  It  is  not  known  when,  by  whom,  or  how  the 
art  of  smelting  iron  was  discovered.  As  well  ask  by 
whom  and  how  fire  was  discovered?  These  are  secrets 
of  the  early  morning  of  human  life — of  that  time  when 
man  made  no  record  of  his  struggles. 

In  lieu  of  history  the  instructor  resorts  to  tradition, 
repeating  the  following  legend :  "  While  men  were  pa- 
tiently rubbing  sticks  to  point  them  into  arrows,  a  spark 
leapt  forth  and  ignited  the  wood-dust  which  had  been 
scraped  from  the  sticks,  and  so  fire  was  found." 

Now  the  "  helper  "  looks  to  his  "  blast "  with  keen  in- 
terest ;  for  the  management  of  the  forge-fire  is  one  of 
the  niceties  of  the  smith's  art.  He  stirs  the  fire  a  little 
impatiently.  The  instructor  heeds  the  act,  but  not  the 
movement  of  impatience.  On  the  contrary  he  seizes  the 
occasion  to  bring  up  the  subject  of  coal.  Question  fol- 
lows question  in  rapid  succession,  and  the  answers  are 
prompt  and  satisfactory,  touching  all  modern  aspects  of 
the  subject,  namely,  the  magnitude  of  the  annual  "  out- 
put," the  localities  of  heaviest  production,  the  cost  of 
mining ;  the  uses,  respectively,  to  which  different  qual- 
ities are  applied,  demand  and  supply,  and  market  value 
or  price.  Here  the  instructor  remarks  that  the  mining, 
transportation,  and  sale  of  coal  are  conducted  in  this  coun- 


THE  FORGING  LABORATORY.  63 

try  by  a  number  of  large  corporations,  with  an  aggregate 
capitalization  and  bonded  indebtedness  of  six  or  seven 
hundred  million  dollars,  and  that  through  combinations 
between  these  corporations  the  price  is  often  arbitra- 
rily advanced.  "  But,"  he  concludes,  "  the  discussion  of 
that  branch  of  the  subject  belongs  more  properly  to  the 
class  in  political  economy." 

The  history  of  coal  in  its  relation  to  iron  smelting  and 
manufacture  forms  a  curious  chapter  in  the  vicissitudes 
of  the  useful  arts.  One  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago 
not  only  all  the  smith's  fires  but  the  smelter's  fires  were 
kept  up  with  charcoal.  The  forests  of  England  were 
literally  swept  away,  like  chaff  before  the  wind,  to  feed 
the  yawning  mouths  of  the  iron  mills.  To  make  a  ton 
of  iron  required  the  consumption  of  hundreds  of  cords 
of  wood.  To  save  the  timber  restrictive  legislation  was 
adopted,  and  the  mills  were  gradually  closed  for  want  of 
fuel,  until,  in  1788,  there  was  not  one  left  in  Sussex,  and 
only  a  small  number  in  the  kingdom.  Meantime  the  Eng- 
lish iron  supply  came  from  Sweden,  Spain,  and  Germany. 
England  seemed  to  be  following  in  the  footsteps  of  the 
Roman  Empire.  The  Romans  accomplished  in  iron 
smelting  and  forging  just  what  might  be  expected  of 
a  warlike  people.  They  required  iron  for  arms  and 
armor,  and  in  smelting  skimmed  the  surface.  This  is 
proven  by  the  cinder  heaps,  rich  in  ore,  which  they  left 
in  Britain.  Archaeologists  trace  the  decline  of  Rome  in 
her  monuments,  which  show  a  steady  deterioration  in  the 
soldier's  equipment.  Alison  attributes  this  decline  to 
the  exhaustion  of  her  gold  and  silver  mines.  A  far  more 
plausible  conjecture  is  found  in  the  waste  of  timber  in 
fuel  for  smelting  purposes,  and  the  resulting  failure  of 
the  iren  supply. 


64  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

The  fall  of  the  Koman  Empire  may  be  accounted  for 
by  her  neglect  of  the  useful  arts.  The  nation  that 
converts  all  her  iron  into  swords  and  spears  shall  surely 
perish.  Had  the  city  of  Seven  Hills  possessed  seven 
men  of  mechanical  genius  like  Watt,  Stephenson,  Mauds- 
lay,  Clement,  Whitney,  Neilson,  and  Nasmyth,  her  fall 
might  have  been  averted,  or  if  not  averted,  it  need  not 
have  involved  the  practical  extinction  of  civilization,  thus 
imposing  upon  mankind  the  shame  of  the  Dark  Ages. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century  there  was 
much  ignorant  prejudice  against  the  use  of  mineral  coal. 
It  was  believed  to  be  injurious  to  health.  All  sorts  of  dis- 
eases were  attributed  to  its  supposed  malignant  influence, 
and  at  one  time  to  burn  it  in  dwellings  was  made  a  penal 
offence.  But  this  prejudice  did  not  extend  to  its  use  in 
smelting  iron,  and  whatever  there  was  of  inventive  gen- 
ius was  devoted  to  a  solution  of  the  problem  of  its  adapt- 
ation to  such  purposes.  Mr.  Samuel  Smiles  has  collected 
the  names  of  the  most  prominent  of  these  Dutch  and 
German  mechanics,  namely,  Sturtevant,  Rovenzon,  Jor- 
dens,  Francke,  and  Sir  Philibert  Yernatt,  and  given  each 
a  niche  in  the  temple  of  fame.  Some  of  them  had  a  true 
conception  of  the  required  processes,  but  they  all  failed 
to  render  the  application  practically  available. 

It  remained  for  Dud.  Dudley  to  succeed  in  making  a 
thoroughly  practical  application  of  mineral  coal  to  iron- 
smelting  purposes,  and  then  curiously  enough  to  fail  of 
success  in  introducing  it  into  general  use.  Dudley  was 
born  in  1599,  in  an  iron-manufacturing  district.  His  fa- 
ther owned  iron-works  near  the  town  of  Dudley,  which 
was  a  collection  of  forges  and  workshops  where  "  nails, 
horseshoes,  keys,  locks,  and  common  agricultural  tools  " 
were  made.  Brought  up  in  the  neighborhood  of  "  twen- 


THE  FORGING  LABORATORY.  65 

ty  thousand  smiths  and  workers  in  iron,"  young  Dudley 
"attained  considerable  knowledge  of  the  various  proc- 
esses of  manufacture."  At  twenty  years  of  age  he  was 
taken  from  college  and  placed  in  charge  of  a  furnace  and 
two  forges  in  Worcestershire,  where  there  was  a  scarcity 
of  wood  but  an  abundance  of  mineral  coal.  He  began 
immediately  to  experiment,  with  a  view  to  the  substitu- 
tion of  the  latter  for  the  former,  and  in  a  year  succeed- 
ed in  demonstrating  "  the  practicability  of  smelting  iron 
with  fuel  made  from  pit-coal,  which  so  many  before  him 
had  tried  in  vain."  But  the  charcoal  iron-masters  com- 
bined to  resist  the  new  method  because  it  cheapened  the 
product.  They  instigated  mobs  to  destroy  Dudley's  fur- 
naces one  after  another,  as  soon  as  they  were  complet- 
ed, harassed  him  with  lawsuits,  and  finally  beggared  and 
drove  him  to  prison.  Then  they  tried  to  wring  his  se- 
cret from  him.  To  this  attempt  Cromwell,  who  was  in- 
terested in  furnaces  in  the  Forest  of  Dean,  is  said  to  have 
been  a  party.  But  all  these  efforts  failed,  and  Dudley 
died  in  1684  carrying  his  secret  with  him  to  the  grave, 
and  there  the  secret  slumbered  nearly  one  hundred  years. 

The  story  of  Dud.  Dudley,  as  told  by  Mr.  Smiles  in  his 
"Iron-workers  and  Tool-makers,"  is  one  of  surpassing 
interest.  It  is  worthy  the  careful  perusal  not  only  of 
every  school-boy  but  of  the  philosophic  student  in  search 
of  the  lessons  of  history,  for  it  affords  fresh  evidence  of 
the  truth  of  the  proposition  that  the  progress  of  civiliza- 
tion depends  upon  progress  in  invention  and  discovery. 

Under  the  influence  of  ignorance,  prejudice,  and  super- 
stition the  iron  industry  of  England  continued  to  decline 
until  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  when  the 
British  people  imported  their  pots  and  kettles.  Fifty 
years  later,  at  the  Coalbrookdale  iron- works  in  Shropshire, 


68  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

when  the  furnaces  had  consumed  all  the  wood  in  the 
neighborhood  and  a  fuel  famine  was  imminent,  smelting 
wit ji  mineral  coal  was  successfully  resumed,  and  in  1766 
two  workmen  of  the  "  works  " — the  brothers  Cranege — in- 
vented the  reverberatory  furnace,  which  added  immense- 
ly to  the  application  of  coal  to  smelting  purposes. 

But  while  we  are  discussing  the  history  of  coal  we  are 
consuming  coal  to  little  purpose,  for  the  blast  is  on  and 
the  furnace  fires  glow  like  miniature  volcanic  craters. 
Let  us  to  work.  Before  the  black-board,  chalk  in  hand, 
the  instructor  stands  and  gives  out  the  lesson.  He  pre- 
sents it  in  the  form  of  drawings,  complete  and  in  detail. 
It  may  involve  only  the  single  process  of  "  drawing,"  or 
it  may  involve  several  processes,  as  "  drawing,"  "  bend- 
ing," and  "  welding."  The  first  sketch,  for  example,  rep- 
resents a  flat  bar  of  iron,  the  counterpart  of  the  bars  rest- 
ing against  the  several  forges.  The  second  sketch  shows 
the  bar  wrought  into  the  form  of  a  cylinder.  The  third 
sketch  shows  it  "  drawn  "  or  lengthened,  and  hence  re- 
duced in  size.  The  fourth  sketch  presents  two  rods  the 
united  lengths  of  which  equal  the  length  of  the  original 
rod.  The  fifth  sketch  represents  the  two  rods  "bent" 
into  the  form  of  chain-links,  and  a  sub-sketch  shows  the 
proper  shape  of  the  ends  of  the  links  for  "welding." 
The  sixth  sketch  shows  the  two  links  joined  and  welded. 

The  black-board  illustrations  may  be  omitted  if  the 
school  is  provided  with  a  complete  set  of  samples.  The 
school  of  mechanic  arts  of  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of 
Technology  has  a  hundred  samples  representing  the  suc- 
cessive steps  in  blacksmithing  manipulation,  including 
welding,  and  the  welding  samples  consist  of  two  parts, 
the  first  representing  the  details  of  the  piece  prepared 
for  welding,  and  the  second  the  welded  piece.  These 


THE  FORGING  LABORATORY.  09 

samples  are  part  of  a  collection  of  three  hundred  and 
twenty  pieces  of  exquisite  workmanship,  covering  every 
department  of  a  complete  manual  training  course,  pre- 
sented to  the  Institute  in  1877  by  the  Emperor  of  Russia. 

The  black-board  illustrations  or  the  samples  having 
been  exhibited  and  explained  as  clearly  as  is  possible  in 
words,  the  instructor  takes  his  place  at  one  of  the  forges, 
and,  surrounded  by  the  class,  goes  through  with  the  suc- 
cessive steps  of  any  manipulation  contained  in  the  lesson 
which  has  not  been  actually  wrought  out  in  some  pre- 
vious lesson. 

If  the  manipulation  is  a  simple  one  the  silence  is  only 
broken  by  the  sound  of  the  blast  aiul  the  stroke  of  the 
hammer — the  students  understand  every  turn  of  the  iron 
and  every  blow  struck  by  the  instructor — but  if  the 
manipulation  is  complicated,  involving  a  fresh  principle, 
the  instructor  is  saluted  by  a  volley  of  questions,  and  he 
often  pauses  to  answer  them.  It  is  the  time  for  ques- 
tions ;  the  more  questions  now,  the  fewer  questions  when 
all  the  blasts  shall  be  on,  and  all  the  sledges  flying  through 
the  air  and  making  music  on  the  anvils.  A  quest-ion  now 
may  lead  to  the  enlightenment  of  twenty-four  students ;  a 
question  later  is  sure  to  cost  the  time  of  twenty-four  stu- 
dents, and  the  answer  to  it  may  enlighten  only  one  student. 

At  last  the  instructor  drops  the  sledge,  straightens  up 
to  his  full  height,  and  wipes  the  sweat  from  his  brow. 
If  the  students  respect  the  instructor  they  will  respect 
labor,  and  they  will  respect  the  instructor  if  he  is  worthy 
of  respect. 

Now  the  school-room  is  a  smithy  and  yet  it  is  not.  It 
is  neither  very  hot  nor  very  smoky,  for  there  is  an  ex- 
haust fan  in  operation  which  vitalizes  the  circulation. 
But  the  atmosphere  resounds  with  the  clangorous  strokes 


70  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

of  a  dozen  sledges,  mingled  with  the  sullen  roar  of  as 
many  forge -fires;  and  there  are  traces  of  soot  on  the 
walls,  and  pale  smoke-wreaths  creep  along  the  ceilings, 
and  hide  in  corners,  and  circle  about  columns  in  fantastic 
shapes.  It  is  a  smithy,  but  a  smithy  adapted,  by  its  ex- 
traordinary neatness,  to  the  manufacture  of  watch-springs, 
palate-arbors,  and  Damascus  blades. 

The  faces  of  the  students  are  aglow  with  the  flush  of 
health-giving  exercise ;  their  brows  are  "  wet  with  honest 
sweat,"  their  heart -beats  are  full  and  strong,  and  the 
crimson  life-currents  surge  hotly  through  every  vein  to 
their  very  finger-tips.  They  strike  out  the  anvil  chorus 
in  all  the  keys  and  in  every  measure  of  the  scale,  and 
the  burning  sparks  fly  whizzing  through  the  air. 

At  a  sign  from  the  instructor  there  is  a  pause.  The 
students  stand  at  ease  and  the  work  is  inspected.  This 
is  the  time  for  more  questions  if  any  student  is  in  doubt ; 
and  the  rest  of  five  minutes  affords  opportunity  for  a 
brief  lecture  on  the  subject  of  the  early  history  of  the 
fraternity  of  smiths. 

Mythology  gives  the  highest  place  in  its  pantheon  to 
Vulcan,  the  God  of  Fire.  For  notwithstanding  he  is  rep- 
resented as  bearded,  covered  with  dust  and  soot,  blowing 
the  fires  of  his  forges  and  surrounded  by  his  chief  minis- 
ters, the  cyclops,  he  is  given  Venus  to  wife  and  made  the 
father  of  Cupid.  Among  the  Scythians  the  iron  sword 
was  a  god.  When  Jerusalem  was  taken  by  the  Baby- 
lonians they  made  captives  of  all  the  smiths  and  other 
craftsmen  of  the  city  —  a  more  grievous  act  than  the 
thousand  million  dollar  tribute  levied  upon  France  by 
Germany  at  the  close  of  the  war  of  1870.  For  to  be  de- 
prived of  the  use  of  iron  is  to  be  relegated  to  a  state  of 
barbarism. 


THE  FOEGING  LABORATORY.  71 

The  vulgar  accounted  for  the  keenness  of  the  first 
sword-blades  on  the  score  of  magic,  and  the  praises  of 
the  smiths  who  forged  were  sung  with  the  chiefs  of  chiv- 
alry who  wielded  them.  So  highly  was  this  mysterious 
power  regarded  by  Tancred,  the  crusader,  that  in  return 
for  the  present  of  King  Arthur's  sword,  Excalibar,  by 
Richard  I.,  he  paid  for  it  with  "  four  great  ships  and  fif- 
teen galleys." 

The  smith  was  a  mighty  man  in  England  in  the  early 
time.  "  In  the  royal  court  of  Wales  he  sat  in  the  great 
hall  with  the  king  and  queen,  and  was  entitled  to  a 
draught  of  every  kind  of  liquor  served."  His  person 
was  sacred ;  his  calling  placed  him  above  the  law.  He 
was  necessary  to  the  feudal  state ;  he  forged  swords 
"  on  the  temper  of  which  life,  honor,  and  victory  in  bat- 
tle depended."  The  smith,  after  the  Norman  invasion, 
gained  in  importance  in  England.  He  was  the  chief 
man  of  the  village,  its  oracle,  and  the  most  cunning  work- 
man of  the  time.  His  name  descended  to  more  families 
than  that  of  any  other  profession — for  the  origin  of  the 
name  Smith  is  the  hot,  dusty,  smoky  smithy,  and  how- 
ever it  may  be  disguised  in  the  spelling,  it  is  entitled  to 
the  proud  distinction  which  its  representatives  sometimes 
seek  to  conceal. 

Mr.  Smiles  draws  the  following  graphic  picture  of  the 
versatility  of  the  smith  of  the  Middle  Ages : 

"  The  smith's  tools  were  of  many  sorts,  but  the  chief 
were  his  hammer,  pincers,  chisel,  tongs,  and  anvil.  It  is 
astonishing  what  a  variety  of  articles  he  turned  out  of 
his  smithy  by  the  help  of  these  rude  implements.  In 
the  tooling,  chasing,  and  consummate  knowledge  of  the 
capabilities  of  iron  he  greatly  surpassed  the  modern 
workman.  The  numerous  exquisite  specimens  of  his 


73  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

handicraft  which  exist  in  our  old  gate-ways,  church  doors, 
altar  railings,  and  ornamented  dogs  and  andirons,  still 
serve  as  types  for  continual  reproduction.  He  was,  in- 
deed, the  most '  cunning  workman '  of  his  time.  But  be- 
sides all  this  he  was  an  engineer.  If  a  road  had  to  be 
made,  or  a  stream  embanked,  or  a  trench  dug,  he  was  in- 
variably called  upon  to  provide  the  tools,  and  often  to 
direct  the  work.  He  was  also  the  military  engineer  of 
his  day,  and  as  late  as  the  reign  of  Edward  III.  we  find 
the  king  repeatedly  sending  for  smiths  from  the  Forest 
of  Dean  to  act  as  engineers  for  the  royal  army  at  the 
siege  of  Berwick." 

But  the  most  signal  triumph  of  the  art,  both  of  the 
smelter  and  the  smith,  is  found  in  the  famous  swords  of 
Damascus,  whose  edge  and  temper  were  so  keen  and  per- 
fect that  they  would  sever  a  gauze  veil  floating  in  the 
air,  or  crash  through  bones  and  helmets  without  sustain- 
ing injury.  These  Damascus  blades,  long  renowned  in 
the  East,  but  first  encountered  by  Europeans  during  the 
crusades,  in  the  hands  of  the  followers  of  Mahomet,  were 
made  of  Indian  steel  or  "  wootz."  This  steel,  produced 
in  the  form  of  little  cakes  weighing  about  two  pounds 
each,  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  city  of  Golconda,  in 
Hiudostan,  was  transported  on  the  backs  of  camels  two 
thousand  miles  to  the  city  of  Damascus,  and  there  con- 
verted into  swords,  sabres,  and  scimitars. 

This  smith's  work  has  never  been  excelled,  if  equalled. 
Millions  of  dollars  have  been  expended  in  efforts  to  pro- 
duce the  equal  of  Indian  steel.  Among  the  investigators 
of  the  subject  the  most  noted  was  a  Russian  general, 
Anossoff,  who  died  in  1851.  His  experiments  were  of 
a  very  elaborate  and  exhaustive  character.  They  occu- 
pied a  lifetime,  and  resulted  in  the  establishment  of 


THE  FOKGING  LABOKATOKY.  73 

works  in  the  Ural  Mountains,  on  the  Siberian  border,  for 
the  production  of  Damascus  steel  by  a  process  of  his 
own  invention.  After  General  Anossoffs  death  the  qual- 
ity of  the  steel  produced  at  his  works  deteriorated. 

We  should  treat  with  reverence  these  obscure  hints  of 
the  triumphs  of  the  ancients  in  certain  departments  of 
art  as  suggestive  of  like  great  achievements  in  other  di- 
rections, for  without  a  knowledge  of  types  they  could 
neither  teach  the  many  what  the  few  knew,  nor  preserve 
what  they  had  acquired  for  the  instruction  of  future 
ages.  All  art  is  the  product  of  a  sequential  series  of 
ideas,  each  idea  containing  the  germ,  of  the  next ;  hence 
the  preservation  of  each  idea  is  essential  to  progress. 
The  art  of  "printing  alone  enables  man  to  preserve  such  a 
record.  It  follows  presumptively  that  the  art  of  print- 
ing constitutes  the  predominant  feature  of  difference 
between  the  civilization  of  the  moderns  and  that  of  the 
ancients.  And  it  is  important  to  observe  that  the  art  of 
printing  is  far  more  necessary  to  progress  in  the  useful 
arts  than  in  the  so-called  fine  arts.  The  ancient  temples 
with  their  sculptured  splendors — the  Parthenon,  the  Ju- 
piter Olympius,  and  scores  of  others — remained  long  to 
testify  to  the  genius  of  Phidias,  Praxiteles,  and  their  gift- 
ed colleagues  of  the  chisel.  These  souvenirs  of  Greek 
genius  still  serve  as  models  for  the  architect  and  the 
sculptor.  It  needs  no  chronicle  to  prove  that  they  mark 
the  culmination  of  the  fine  arts.  If  the  moderns  have 
failed  to  excel,  or  even  equal  them,  it  is  not  because  their 
conception,  design,  or  construction  involved  occult  proc- 
esses. It  is  rather  because  there  is  a  limit  to  the  devel- 
opment of  the  so-called  fine  arts,  and  that  limit  in  archi- 
tecture and  sculpture  was  reached  in  Greece  more  than 
two  thousand  years  ago. 


74  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

But  with  the  Damascus  blade,  which  typifies  the  use- 
ful arts,  it  is  entirely  different.  It,  too,  is  in  itself  a  tri- 
umph of  genius  not  less  pronounced  than  the  Athena  of 
Phidias.  But  above  and  beyond  this  the  arts  of  smelt- 
ing and  forging  are  so  subtile  as  almost  to  elude  the 
grasp  of  analysis.  Not  only  the  method  of  the  fabrica- 
tion of  the  Damascus  blade  but  the  processes  involved 
in  the  production  of  the  steel  entering  into  its  compo- 
sition— all  these  are  shrouded  in  impenetrable  mystery. 
It  follows  that  the  useful  arts  are  finer  than  the  so- 
called  fine  arts.  Their  processes  are  more  intricate,  and 
hence  more  difficult  of  comprehension.  To  a  solution 
of  the  questions  presented  in  the  course  of  their  study 
an  extended  acquaintance  with  the  sciences  is  essential. 
The  highest  departments  of  the  fine  arts,  so-called,  re- 
quire only  a  study  of  the  features,  figure,  and  character 
of  man,  and  of  certain  visible  forms  of  nature,  while 
the  useful  arts  make  incessant  demands  upon  the  re- 
sources of  natural  philosophy.  The  chemist  toils  in  his 
laboratory,  and  the  botanist  and  the  geologist  explore 
forest,  field,  and  mine  in  search  of  new  truths,  with  the 
single  purpose  of  enlarging  the  sphere  of  the  useful  arts, 
and  so  of  ministering  more  effectively  to  the  ever  in- 
creasing needs  of  man.  Hence  there  can  be  no  limit  to 
the  development  of  the  useful  arts  except  the  limit  to  be 
found  in  the  exhaustion  of  the  forces  of  nature. 

We  should,  then,  venerate  the  artisan  rather  than  the 
artist.  Let  us  invoke  the  shade  of  the  dusky  Indian 
smelter.  See  him  in  the  dark  recesses  of  the  forest, 
bending  in  rapt  attention  over  his  furnace,  or  holding 
aloft  a  little  lump  of  his  matchless  steel.  Alas,  he  is 
dumb !  His  secret  perished  with  him.  But  the  Indian 
smelter  and  the  Damascus  smith  are  kin  to  all  the  invent- 


THE  FORGING  LABORATORY.  75 

ors  and  discoverers  of  all  the  ages.  Across  continents 
and  seas,  over  trackless  wastes  of  history — epochs  during 
which  ignorance  and  superstition  prevailed  and  the  intel- 
lect of  man  slumbered  —  the  ancient  smelter  and  the 
ancient  smith  extend  their  shadowy  hands  to  the  stu- 
dents in  this  school  of  the  nineteenth  century — extend 
'them  in  token  of  the  fellowship  of  a  common  struggle 
and  a  common  hope  of  triumph — the  struggle  after 
truth,  and  the  hope  of  the  triumph  of  industry. 

The  instructor  raps  on  the  black-board,  and  the  school- 
room is  at  once  transformed  into  a  smithy.  Again  the 
forge-fires  roar,  and  again  the  anvils  resound  under  the 
stroke  of  the  hammer.  For  half  an  hour  the  lesson  goes 
on,  and  then  comes  the -wind- up,  and  the  several  tests 
of  excellence  are  applied  to  the  completed  task  of  each 
student.  Form,  dimensions,  finish — these  are  the  tests. 
The  instructor  marks  the  several  pieces  of  work,  makes  a 
record  of  the  result,  reads  the  record,  and  is  on  the  point 
of  dismissing  the  class  when  an  idea  occurs  to  his  mind 
and  he  enjoins  silence.  Taking  in  his  hand  a  heavy 
sledge,  and  resting  it  on  the  anvil  before  him,  he  says, 
"  This  is  a  baby-hammer,  and  all  the  forging  we  do  here 
is  baby-forging.  I  hope  soon  to  have  an  opportunity  to 
take  you  to  the  great  works  of  Mr.  Crane,  in  this  city, 
and  there  show  you  a  steam-hammer  which  weighs  a  ton 
striking  fifty  to  one  hundred  blows  a  minute — blows,  too, 
that  shame  the  fabled  power  of  Yulcan,  the  God  of  Fire. 
At  Pittsburg,  Pa.,  there  is  an  anvil  of  150  tons  weight 
which  serves  for  forging  with  a  15-ton  hammer.  But 
the  monster  steam-hammer  is  to  be  found  in  Krupp's  cast- 
steel  works  at  Essen,  Germany.  The  hammer-head  is  12 
feet  long,  5£  feet  wide,  4:  feet  thick,  weighs  50  tons,  and 
has  a  stroke  of  9  feet.  The  depth  of  the  foundation 

4* 


76  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

is  100  feet,  consisting  of  three  parts,  masonry,  timber, 
and  iron,  bolted  together.  Four  cranes,  each  capable  of 
bearing  200  tons,  serve  the  hammer  with  material." 

The  steam-hammer  was  invented  in  1837  by  James 
Nasmyth,  of  England,  in  response  to  a  demand  for  a 
hammer  that  would  forge  a  steamship  paddle-shaft  of 
unprecedented  size.  The  nature  of  the  emergency  being 
presented  to  his  mind,  Mr.  Nasmyth  conceived  the  idea 
of  the  steam-hammer  instantaneously,  as  it  were,  and  at 
once  proceeded  to  sketch  the  child  of  his  brain  on  paper. 
He  was  too  poor  to  defray  the  cost  of  patenting  his  in- 
vention ;  nor  was  he  able  to  procure  the  necessary  funds 
for  that  purpose  until  lie  had  seen  in  France  a  hammer 
made  from  his  own  original  sketch  in  operation. 

The  steam-hammer  came  rapidly  into  use,  superseding 
all  others  of  the  ponderous  sort,  increasing  the  quantity 
of  products  and  reducing  the  cost  of  manufacture  by 
fifty  per  cent.  It  was  through  the  steam-hammer  only 
that  the  fabrication  of  the  immense  wrought-iron  ord- 
nance and  the  huge  plates  for  covering  ships-of-war  of 
modern  times  became  possible.  In  the  hands  of  the 
giant,  steam,  Mr.  Nasmyth's  hammer,  even  if  it  weigh 
fifty  tons,  is  susceptible  of  more  accurate  strokes  than 
the  tack-hammer  in  the  hands  of  the  upholsterer,  or  the 
sledge  in  the  hands  of  the  most  skilled  blacksmith.  It 
crushes  tons  of  iron  into  a  shapeless  mass  at  one  blow, 
and  at  the  next  drives  a  tack,  or  cracks  an  egg-shell  in  an 
egg-cup  without  injuring  the  cup. 

Mr.  Nasmyth,  in  1845,  applied  the  steam-hammer  prin- 
ciple to  the  pile-driver.  With  this  wonderful  machine 
the  "  driving  -  block,"  weighing  several  tons,  descends 
eighty  times  a  minute  on  the  head  of  the  pile,  sending 
it  home  with  almost  incredible  rapidity.  The  saving  of 


THE   FORGING  LABORATORY.  77 

time  as  compared  with  the  old  method  is  in  the  ratio  of 
1  to  1800 ;  that  is,  a  pile  can  be  driven  in  four  minutes 
that  before  required  twelve  hours. 

The  course  in  the  Forging  Laboratory  extends  from  the 
making  and  care  of  forge-fires  to  case-hardening  iron  and 
hardening  and  tempering  steel ;  and  competent  and  ex- 
perienced instructors  declare  that  the  student  in  the  edu- 
cational smithy  gains  as  much  skill  in  a  day  as  the  smith's 
apprentice  gains  in  a  year  in  the  ordinary  shop. 


78  MANUAL  TKA1NING. 


CHAPTER  IX. 
THE  MACHINE-TOOL  LABORATORY. 

The  Foundery  and  Smithy  are  Ancient,  the  Machine-tool  Shop  is  Mod- 
ern.— The  Giant,  Steam,  reduced  to  Servitude.— The  Iron  Lines  of 
Progress — They  converge  in  the  Shop ;  its  triumphs  from  the  Watch- 
spring  to  the  Locomotive. — The  Applications  of  Iron  in  Art  is  the 
Subject  of  Subjects. — The  Story  of  Invention  is  the  History  of 
Civilization. — The  Machine-maker  and  the  Tool-maker  are  the  best 
Friends  of  Man. — Watt's  Great  Conception  waited  for  Automatic 
Tools;  their  Accuracy. — The  Hand-made  and  the  Machine-made 
Watch. — The  Elgin  (Illinois)  Watch  Factory. — The  Interdepen- 
dence of  the  Arts. — The  Making  of  a  Suit  of  Clothes. — The  Ante- 
room of  the  Machine-tool  Laboratory. — Chipping  and  Filing. — The 
File-cutter.— The  Poverty  of  Words  as  compared  with  Things. — 
The  Graduating  Project. — The  Vision  of  the  Instructor. 

THE  transition  from  the  laboratories  for  founding  and 
forging  to  the  Machine-tool  Laboratory  symbolizes  a 
mighty  revolution  in  the  practical  arts — a  revolution  so 
stupendous  as  to  defy  description,  and  so  far-reaching  as 
to  appall  the  spirit  of  prophecy.  The  foundery  and  the 
smithy  date  back  to  the  dawn  of  history ;  the  machine- 
tool  shop  is  a  creation  of  yesterday.  About  the  early 
manipulations  of  iron  mythology  wove  a  web  of  fancy : 
Vulcan  forged  Jove's  thunderbolts,  the  iron  sword  of 
the  savage  was  a  god,  and  even  far  down  the  course  of 
time,  late  in  the  Middle  Ages,  Tancred,  the  crusader,  paid 
an  almost  fabulous  sum  for  King  Arthur's  famous  sword 
Excalibar — but  the  modern  machine-tool  shop  is  a  huge 
iron  automaton,  without  sentiment,  and  possessing  no 
poetry  except  the  rhythmic  harmony  of  motion.  In  this 


THE   MACHINE-TOOL   LABORATORY.  81 

shop  steam  is  reduced  to  servitude,  and  compelled  with 
giant  hands  to  bore,  mortise,  plane,  polish,  fashion,  and 
fit  great  masses  of  iron,  and,  anon,  with  delicate  fingers 
to  spin  gossamer  threads  of  burnished  steel.  "With  the 
hot  steam  coursing  through  its  steel -ribbed  veins  the 
brain  of  this  automaton  thinks  the  thoughts  foreordained 
by  its  inventor ;  its  hands  do  his  bidding,  its  arms  fetch 
and  carry  for  him,  its  feet  come  and  go  at  his  beck 
and  nod.  This  automaton  feeds  on  iron,  steel,  copper, 
and  brass,  and  produces  the  watch-spring  and  the  loco- 
motive, the  revolver  and  the  Krupp  gun,  the  surgeon's 
lancet  and  the  shaft  of  a  steamship,  the  steel  pen  and  the 
steam-hammer,  the  vault -lock  and  the  pile-driver,  the 
sewing-machine  and  the  Corliss  engine.  The  lever  which 
wakens  this  automaton  to  life,  which  endows  its  brain 
with  genius  and  its  fingers  with  cunning,  is  the  rod  of 
empire.  All  the  lines  of  modern  development  converge 
in  the  machine-tool  shop,  and  they  are  all  lines  of  iron, 
whether  consisting  of  a  fine  wire  strung  on  poles  in  mid- 
air or  of  huge  bars  resting  on  the  solid  earth.  Iron  is 
the  king  of  metals  but  the  slave  of  man.  Its  magnetic 
quality  guides  the  mariner  on  the  sea,  and  its  tough  fibre 
and  density  sustain  the  weight  of  the  locomotive  on  the 
land.  It  constitutes  the  foundation  of  every  useful  art, 
from  the  plough  of  the  husbandman  to  the  Jacquard 
loom  of  the  weaver.  But  it  is  only  in  the  machine-tool 
shop  that  the  great  steam-driven  machines  of  commerce 
and  manufacture  can  be  produced.  The  ancients  pos- 
sessed iron,  which  they  cast  in  the  foundery  and  forged 
in  the  smithy ;  they  knew  the  power  of  steam,  and  the 
magicians  of  the  time  amused  the  populace  with  exhibi- 
tions of  it,  but  they  had  no  machine-tool  shops  in  which 
steam  could  be  harnessed  for  the  journey  across  conti- 


82  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

nents  and  seas.  The  thousand  and  one  modern  applica- 
tions of  iron  to  the  needs  of  man  have  originated  in  the 
machine-tool  shop.  It  is  through  these  applications  of 
iron,  not  through  iron  itself,  that  human  pursuits  have 
been  so  widely  diversified,  and  human  powers  so  richly 
developed  and  enlarged. 

The  contrasts  presented  by  the  development  of  the 
useful  arts  during  the  last  hundred  years  are  startling: 
The  toilsome  journey  of  a  day  reduced  to  an  hour  with 
the  maximum  of  comfort ;  the  few  yards  of  fabric  pain- 
fully woven  by  hand  expanded  into  webs  of  cotton,  lin- 
en, woollen,  and  silk  cloths,  rolling  from  thousands  of 
steam-driven  looms ;  the  stocking  once  requiring  hours 
to  make,  now  dropping  second  by  second  from  the  iron 
fingers  of  the  knitting-machine ;  the  nails,  screws,  pins, 
and  needles,  forged  one  by  one  in  the  old  village  smithy, 
now  flying  from  the  hands  of  automatic  machines  by  the 
thousand  million ;  the  numberless  stitches  of  the  sewing- 
machine  as  compared  with  the  few  of  the  olden  time, 
which  made  the  fingers  and  the  hearts  of  women  ache ; 
the  vast  crop  of  cereals  planted,  cultivated,  and  gathered 
into  barns  with  iron  hands  in  contrast  with  the  toilsome 
processes  of  even  fifty  years  ago.  These  are  only  a 
few  of  the  many  illustrations  that  might  be  given  of 
progress  in  the  useful  arts,  and  they  all  emanate  from 
the  machine-tool  shop. 

At  the  threshold  of  the  most  important  inquiry  that 
ever  occupied  the  mind  of  man  stand  the  twenty-four 
students  we  have  followed,  with  more  or  less  regularity, 
through  the  various  laboratories  which  constitute  the 
preliminary  steps  in  the  manual  training  course.  It  is 
the  most  important  inquiry  that  ever  engaged  the  atten- 
tion of  man,  because  it  touches  modern  civilization  at 


THE  MACHINE-TOOL   LABORATORY.  83 

more  points  than  any  other.  It  consists  of  an  investiga- 
tion into  the  subject  of  the  diversity  of  the  applications 
of  iron  in  art,  a  study  both  of  the  minute  and  the  ponder- 
ous in  iron  tools  and  machines,  and  it  is  by  these  tools 
and  machines  that  the  bulk  of  the  great  enterprises  of 
the  men  of  modern  times  are  carried  forward.  These 
students  are  familiar  with  the  details  of  the  laboratories 
for  founding  and  forging,  but  the  manipulations  of  those 
branches  of  iron  manufacture  are  coarse  and  heavy  as 
compared  with  those  of  the  Machine-tool  Laboratory.  In 
a  word,  the  difference  between  the  iron  manipulations  of 
the  Machine-tool  Laboratory  and  those  of  the  founding 
and  forging  laboratories  is  the  exact  measure  of  the  dif- 
ference between  the  modern  and  the  ancient  systems  of 
civilization. 

The  ancient  civilizations  culminated  in  that  of  Rome. 
The  Romans  possessed  iron,  but  confined  their  manipula- 
tions of  it  to  the  foundery  and  the  smithy.  Under  the 
Roman  empire  the  enterprises  of  man — commercial,  man- 
ufacturing, and  industrial  generally — reached  the  limit 
marked  by  the  applications  of  iron  to  the  useful  arts.  It 
is  not  important  in  this  connection  to  inquire  why  in- 
ventions and  discoveries  ceased.  It  is  enough  that  they 
ceased.  There  was  an  ominous  pause ;  mankind  risen  to 
a  giddy  height  looked  back  instead  of  still  upward ;  the 
struggle  to  advance  came  to  an  end,  ambition  died  out  of 
life,  and  a  saturnalia  of  bloody  crime  and  savage  brutal- 
ity ensued.  Exhaustion  followed,  then  stagnation,  moral 
and  intellectual,  and  then  the  decay  of  all  the  arts.  The 
world  stood  still,  and  in  that  state  of  quiescence  remain- 
ed until  printing  was  invented  and  America  discovered. 
Still  it  waited  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  before  re- 
ceiving the  first  hint  of  steam-driven  machines  and  the 


84  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

machine -tool  shop,  and  during  all  that  time  progress 
was  painfully  slow.  Something  was  required  to  give  to 
human  ambition  a  grand  impulse,  and  to  open  to  human 
energy  and  industry  a  broad  field.  That  something  did 
not  come  till  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and 
it  should  never  be  forgotten  that  it  came  then  through 
the  humble  men  of  the  workshop.  To  their  inventive 
genius  mankind  owes  more  than  to  all  the  philosophers, 
litterateurs,  professors,  and  statesmen  of  all  time.  These 
men  of  the  workshop — Huntsman,  Cort,  Roebuck,  Watt, 
Fulton,  Mushet,  Hargreaves,  Neilson,  "Whitney,  Bramah, 
Maudslay,  Clement,  Murray,  Roberts,  the  Stephensons, 
father  and  son,  and  Nasmyth — invented  machines  which 
appear  to  rival  human  intelligence,  and  in  fact  far  excel 
human  precision  in  the  execution  of  their  work.  In  en- 
dowing iron  with  the  cunning  of  genius  and  the  terrific 
power  of  the  fabled  cyclops,  the  modern  mechanic  has 
revolutionized  the  field  of  human  effort,  transferring  it 
from  the  foundery  and  the  smithy  to  the  machine-tool 
shop.  It  is  here,  and  here  alone,  that  steam-driven 
machines  can  be  made.  They  may  be  conceived  in  the 
mind  of  a  "Watt  or  a  Stephenson,  but  they  can  be  made 
only  by  the  automatic  tools  of  a  Maudslay,  a  Clement,  a 
Bramah,  or  a  Nasmyth.  Man  was  helpless  without  steam- 
driven  machines,  and  he  could  not  have  steam-driven  ma- 
chines until  machine-made  tools  had  been  devised  with 
which  to  make  them.  The  experience  of  Watt  striking- 
ly illustrates  this  point.  When  he  had  completed  his  in- 
vention of  the  steam-engine,  he  found  it  nearly  impossible 
to  realize  his  idea  in  a  working  machine,  owing  to  the 
incompetency  of  the  workmen  of  the  time.  In  reply 
to  the  inquiry  of  Dr.  Roebuck,  "  What  is  the  principal 
hinderance  in  erecting  engines  ?"  he  responds, "  It  is  al« 


THE   MACHINE-TOOL   LABORATORY.  85 

ways  the  smith-work."  His  first  cylinder,  made  of  ham- 
mered iron  soldered  together  by  a  whitesmith,  was  a  com- 
plete failure.  But  even  such  workmen  were  so  scarce 
that  upon  the  death  of  this  "  white-iron  man  "  Watt  was 
reduced  almost  to  a  state  of  despair.  "  His  next  cylinder 
was  cast  and  bored  at  Carron,  but  it  was  so  untrue  that 
it  proved  next  to  useless.  The  piston  could  not  be  kept 
steam-tight,  notwithstanding  the  various  expedients  which 
were  adopted  of  stuffing  it  with  paper,  cork,  putty,  paste- 
board, and  old  hats."  Smeaton,  the  best  workman  of  the 
time,  "  expressed  the  opinion,  when  he  saw  the  engine  at 
work,  that  notwithstanding  the  excellence  of  the  inven- 
tion it  could  never  be  brought  into  general  use  because 
of  the  difficulty  of  getting  its  various  parts  manufactured 
with  sufficient  precision."  "Watt  constantly  complained 
of  "  villanous  bad  workmanship."  "  Machine-made  tools 
were  unknown,  hence  there  were  no  good  tools.  At- 
tempting to  run  an  engine  of  the  old  regime,  the  foreman 
of  the  shop  gave  it  up  in  despair,  exclaiming, "  I  think 
we  had  better  leave  the  cogs  to  settle  their  differences 
with  one  another;  they  will  grind  themselves  right  in 
time."  Contrast  with  this  clumsy  machine  of  the  hand- 
tool  era  the  Corliss  engine  of  the  present  day,  whose 
every  movement  possesses  the  noiseless  grace  of  a  wom- 
an and  the  conscious  power  of  a  giant ;  and  this  giant 
springs  full-armed  from  the  machine-tool  shop  as  Miner- 
va sprang  from  the  brain  of  Jupiter.  Mr.  Smiles  says, 
"When  the  powerful  oscillating  engines  of  the  War- 
rior were  put  on  board  that  ship,  the  parts,  consisting  of 
some  five  thousand  separate  pieces,  were  brought  from 
the  different  workshops  of  the  Messrs.  Penn  &  Sons, 
where  they  had  been  made  by  workmen  who  knew  not 
the  places  they  were  to  occupy,  and  fitted  together  with 


86  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

such  precision  that  so  soon  as  the  steam  was  raised  and 
let  into  the  cylinders  the  immense  machine  began  as  if 
to  breathe  and  move  like  a  living  creature,  stretching  its 
huge  arms  like  a  new-born  giant ;  and  then,  after  prac- 
tising its  strength  a  little,  and  proving  its  soundness  in 
body  and  limb,  it  started  off  with  the  power  of  above  a 
thousand  horses,  to  try  its  strength  in  breasting  the  bil- 
lows of  the  North  Sea." 

The  great  and  small  tools,  the  automata  of  the  ma- 
chine-shop, are  no  less  triumphs  of  mechanical  genius 
than  the " powerful  oscillating  engines  of  the  Warrior" 
The  prime  difficulty  of  the  hand- worker  was  to  make  two 
things  exactly  alike,  then  followed  the  impossibility  of 
making  many  things — the  narrow  limit  of  human  capac- 
ity to  produce.  At  that  point  the  inventor  appeared 
with  a  machine  which  would  make  a  thousand  things  in 
the  time  the  hand -worker  required  to  make  one,  and 
each  one  of  them  the  exact  counterpart  of  every  other. 

A  hundred  years  ago  John  Arnold,  the  inventor  of  the 
chronometer,  accomplished  a  marvel  of  patience  and  in- 
genuity in  the  form  of  a  watch  the  size  of  twopence  and 
the  weight  of  sixpence.  The  workmanship  was  so  deli- 
cate that  he  was  compelled  not  only  to  fashion  every 
part  with  his  own  hand,  but  to  design  and  make  the  tools 
employed  in  its  construction.  The  watch  was  presented 
to  George  III.,  of  England,  who  showed  his  appreciation 
of  Arnold's  mechanical  skill  in  a  present  of  five  hundred 
guineas.  The  Emperor  of  Eussia  offered  Arnold  $5000 
for  a  duplicate  of  the  wonderful  little  time-piece,  which 
offer  was,  however,  declined.  It  was  so  difficult  for  the 
expert  watch-maker  of  a  century  ago  to  make  two  things 
exactly  alike,  that  Arnold  could  not  afford  to  undertake 
to  make  another  miniature  watch  even  for  the  exorbitant 


THE  MACHINE-TOOL   LABORATORY.  87 

price  of  $5000.  But  for  ten  dollars  the  Elgin  (Illinois) 
National  Watch  Company  will  supply  the  Emperor  of 
Russia  with  a  machine-made  watch  more  nearly  perfect 
than  Arnold's  masterpiece,  and  on  the  same  day  turn  out 
one  thousand  others  exactly  like  it.  Imagine  yourself 
now  in  the  watch  factory  of  the  Elgin  Company ;  observe 
that  artisan  holding  in  his  hand  a  coil  of  fine  steel  wire 
weighing  a  pound.  He  approaches  a  machine,  places  one 
end  of  the  wire  in  its  iron  fingers,  presses  a  lever,  and  in 
a  few  minutes  the  coil  is  converted  into  two  hundred 
thousand  minute  screws,  each  and  every  one  as  perfect 
as  the  best  that  Arnold  made  for  his  George  III.  gem. 

It  is  with  the  greatest  effort  of  painstaking  care  that 
the  expert  sewing-woman  draws  two  stitches  closely  re- 
sembling each  other,  yet  while  she  is  making  the  toil- 
some exertion  of  her  utmost  skill  the  sewing-machine 
sets  hundreds  of  stitches  so  exactly  alike  that  a  micro- 
scopic examination  would  fail  to  detect  the  least  dissimi- 
larity. 

The  sewing-machine  affords  an  admirable  illustration 
of  the  interdependence  of  the  practical  arts.  The  sew- 
ing-woman was  able  to  keep  pace  with  the  slow  and  toil- 
some processes  of  the  distaff  and  loom,  but  upon  the 
application  of  steam-power  to  spinning  and  weaving  the 
demand  for  sewing  was  augmented  a  thousand-fold.  If 
the  sewing-machine  has  not  emancipated  woman  from 
the  drudgery  so  pathetically  depicted  by  Tom  Hood,  it 
has  multiplied  the  production  of  garments  almost  beyond 
the  power  of  figures  to  express.  Note  this  instance  il- 
lustrative of  the  triumph  of  automatic  machinery  in  its 
application  to  manufactures.  "The  Emperor  of  Aus- 
tria was  lately  presented  with  a  suit  of  clothes  possessing 
this  remarkable  history :  The  wool  from  which  the  gar- 


88  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

ments  were  made  was  clipped  from  the  sheep  only  elev- 
en hours  before  the  suit  was  completed.  At  6.08  in  the 
morning  the  sheep  were  sheared ;  at  6.11  the  wool  was 
washed ;  at  6.37  dyed ;  at  6.50  picked ;  at  7.34  the  final 
carding  process  was  finished ;  at  eight  o'clock  it  was 
spun;  at  8.15  spooled;  at  8.37  the  warp  was  in  the 
loom ;  at  8.43  the  shuttles  were  ready ;  at  11.10  seven 
and  three-fourth  ells  of  cloth  were  completed ;  at  12.03 
the  cloth  was  fulled ;  at  12.14  washed ;  at  12.17  sprin- 
kled ;  at  12.31  dried  ;  at  12.45  sheared  ;  at  1.07  napped ; 
at  1.10  brushed  ;  and  at  1.15  prepared  and  ready  for  the 
shears  and  needle.  At  five  o'clock  the  suit,  consisting 
of  a  hunting -jacket,  waistcoat,  and  trousers,  was  fin- 
ished." 

There  is  a  sort  of  anteroom  to  the  Machine-tool  Labor- 
atory with  which  the  students  are  thoroughly  familiar. 
It  is  called  the  Chipping,  Filing,  and  Fitting  Laboratory, 
has  twenty-four  vises,  a  great  assortment  of  cold-chisels 
and  files,  and  is  devoted  to  vise  work.  The  course  in 
the  Chipping  Filing  and  Fitting  Laboratory  consists  of  a 
score  or  more  lessons  involving  various  file  and  chisel 
manipulations,  as,  "filing  to  line,"  "dovetailing,"  "par- 
allel fitting  tongues  and  grooves,"  "  ring-work  and  free- 
hand filing,"  "chipping  bevels,"  "ward-filing  and  key- 
fitting,"  "screw-filing,"  "scraping,"  etc.,  each  lesson  be- 
ing so  devised  as  to  insure  the  introduction  of  variously 
shaped  tools,  and  their  application  to  the  forms  of  work 
for  which  they  are  designed. 

This  anteroom  to  the  Machine-tool  Laboratory  is  like 
most  anterooms  plain  in  its  appointments,  and  it  is  also 
like  the  conventional  anteroom,  a  place  where  the  student 
does  not  desire  to  remain  long.  The  witchery  of  the  great 
laboratory  beyond  has  already  cast  its  spell  over  the  boy 


THE   MACHINE-TOOL   LABORATORY.  91 

at  the  vise.  But  there  is  excellent  hand  and  eye  training 
work  in  the  Chipping,  Filing,  and  Fitting  Laboratory. 

The  file  is  a  humble  tool,  but  it  is  older  than  history, 
dating  back  to  the  Greek  Mythological  period.  "  From 
the  smallest  mouse-tail  file  used  in  the  delicate  operations 
of  the  watch  and  philosophical  instrument  maker,  to  the 
square  file  for  the  smith's  heaviest  work,  there  is  a  multi- 
farious diversity  in  shape,  size,  and  gauge  of  cutting." 
Some  of  the  files  made  by  the  Swiss  'for  the  watch-maker 
"are  of  so  fine  a  cut  that  the  unaided  eye  cannot  discern 
the  ridges." 

In  no  department  of  the  useful  arts  did  the  hand- 
worker attain  to  greater  dexterity  than  in  file-cutting. 
With  a  sharp-edged  chisel  the  file-cutter  made  from  one 
hundred  and  fifty  to  two  hundred  "  burs  "  a  minute,  and 
they  were  so  fine  as  to  be  traced  by  the  sense  of  touch 
alone,  but  as  straight  as  though  ruled  by  a  machine.  The 
hand -working  file-cutter  held  his  ground  until  1859, 
when  a  Frenchman,  M.  Bernot,  invented  a  file  -  cutting 
machine  which  entirely  superseded  the  old  method  of 
manufacture,  reducing  the  cost  of  files  to  one-eighth  of 
their  former  price. 

The  lessons  in  the  Machine-tool  Laboratory  will  not  be 
described  in  detail  as  in  the  other  shops.  The  processes 
are  so  delicate  and  so  intricate,  and  the  resulting  prod- 
ucts in  machines  so  closely  approach  the  marvellous,  as  to 
beggar  description.  The  poverty  of  words  as  compared 
with  things  asserts  itself  with  unexampled  force  in  the 
presence  of  a  great  variety  of  tools,  each  of  which  seems 
to  be  endowed  with  the  power  of  reflection,  and  each  of 
which,  instead  of  whispering  a  word  in  your  ear,  drops 
into  your  hand  a  thing  of  use  to  man. 

The  laboratory  is  silent,  the  tools  are  dumb,  but  how 


02  MANUAL  TKAINING. 

eloquently  they  proclaim  the  era  of  comfort  and  luxury ! 
They  have  no  tongue,  but  through  their  lips  you  shall 
speak  across  continents  and  under  seas.  They  have  no 
legs,  but  through  their  aid  you  shall,  in  a  race  round  the 
world,  outstrip  Mercury.  The  machines  they  make  shall 
bear  all  your  burdens ;  with  their  brawny  arms  they  lift 
a  thousand  tons,  and  with  their  fingers  of  fairy-like  deli- 
cacy pick  up  a  pin ;  with  the  augur  of  Hercules  they 
bore  a  channel  through  the  mountain  of  granite,  and 
with  a  Liliputian  gimlet  tunnel  one  of  the  hairs  of  your 
head. 

These  ingenious  tools  are  worthy  of  careful  inspection 
both  on  account  of  the  marvels  they  perform  and  the 
delicacy  of  their  construction  and  adjustments.  One 
of  them,  a  screw-engine  lathe,  for  example,  is  taken  to 
pieces,  and  each  piece  described  in  order  that  the  stu- 
dents may  be  made  familiar  with  the  construction  of  the 
tool,  and  so  rendered  capable  of  taking  good  care  of  it. 
During  this  inspection  the  instructor  outlines  the  history 
of  the  tool.  The  main  feature  is  the  slide-rest,  invented 
by  Maudslay  while  in  the  employ  of  Bramah,  the  lock- 
maker.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  two  things  exact- 
ly alike,  or  near  enough  alike,  practically,  to  serve  the 
same  purpose  very  well,  were  never  produced  on  the  old- 
fashioned  turning  lathe.  This  the  instructor  endeavors 
to  make  clear  to  the  class.  He  also  explains  precisely 
how  Maudslay's  improvement  remedied  the  defects  of 
the  old-fashioned  lathe.  Still  there  remained  something 
to  be  done  to  make  it  perfect,  and  putting  the  pieces  to- 
gether the  instructor  shows  where  Maudslay's  work  end- 
ed and  that  of  Clement  began.  Clement  made  two  im- 
provements in  the  slide-rest,  one  involving  the  principle 
of  self -correction,  for  which  he  received  the  gold  Isis 


THE   MACHINE-TOOL  LABORATORY.  93 

medal  of  the  Society  of  Arts  in  1827,  and  the  other 
consisting  of  the  "self-adjusting  double-driving  centre 
check,"  for  which  he  was  awarded  the  silver  medal  of  the 
same  society  in  1828.  Thus  improved  or  perfected,  the 
slide -lathe  became  the  acknowledged  king  of  machine- 
tools,  the  self-adjusting  two -armed  driver  taking  the 
strain  from  the  centre  and  dividing  it  between  the  two 
arms,  and  so  correcting  all  tendency  to  eccentricity  in 
the  work. 

The  Machine-tool  Laboratory  contains  a  great  variety 
of  tools,  of  which  the  chief  are  lathes,  drills,  and  planers  ; 
but  there  are  many  auxiliary  tools,  and  in  the  advanced 
stages  of  the  course  a  single  lesson  often  affords  oppor- 
tunity for  the  introduction  of  several  of  them.  And,  as 
in  the  other  school  laboratories,  each  tool,  upon  its  first 
presentation  to  the  class,  forms  the  subject  of  a  brief 
lecture — a  practical  lecture  too,  for  the  instructor  uses 
the  tool  while  he  sketches  its  history  and  perhaps  that 
of  its  inventor,  shows  what  place  it  holds  in  the  order 
of  machine-tool  development,  and  how  admirably  it  is 
adapted  to  its  particular  work,  and  makes  suggestions  as 
to  its  care.  Sometimes  a  lesson  involves  the  use  of  a 
drawing  made  by  the  students  a  year  before,  and  the 
piece  of  iron  in  which  it  is  wrought  is  the  product  of  a 
previous  lesson  in  forging ;  and  it  may  also  have  been 
manipulated  with  the  file  or  the  cold-chisel,  or  both,  in 
the  Chipping,  Filing,  and  Fitting  Laboratory. 

From  the  first  lesson  in  the  room  devoted  to  draw- 
ing, to  the  last  lesson  in  the  Machine-tool  Laboratory, 
the  course  of  training  is  orderly,  consecutive.  Each  step 
contains  a  hint  of  the  nature  of  the  next  step,  and  each 
succeeding  step  consists  of  a  further  application  of  the 
principles  and  processes  of  the  last  preceding  step.  In 


94  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

a  word,  the  students  follow  their  drawings  through  all 
the  laboratories  till  the  designs  "  are  brought  out  in  a 
finished  state  either  in  cast  or  wrought  iron." 

The  lathe  is  the  fundamental  machine-tool,  but  a  com- 
pletely equipped  machine-tool  laboratory  includes  a  great 
variety  of  supplementary  or  auxiliary  tools,  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  which  is  essential  to  a  good  mechanical  ed- 
ucation. It  does  not  follow,  because  these  tools  are  in  a 
large  degree  automatic,  that  skill  may  be  dispensed  with 
in  their  use.  Many  of  them  are  very  complicated  in  de- 
sign and  construction,  and  they  can  no  more  be  made  to 
do  efficient  service  under  an  unskilled  hand  than  a  loco- 
motive can  be  made  to  accomplish  a  series  of  success- 
ful "  runs  "  by  an  unskilled  "  driver."  Hence  every  tool 
in  the  laboratory  is  made  the  subject  of  an  exhaustive 
study.  The  principle  of  mechanics  involved  in  its  con- 
struction is  expounded,  a  practical  illustration  of  its 
method  of  operation  is  given,  its  peculiar  liability  to  in- 
jury is  explained,  and  rules  for  its  care  are  carefully  for- 
mulated, and  frequently  repeated. 

There  is  a  prevalent  theory  that  the  wide  application 
of  so-called  automatic  tools  to  mechanical  work  largely 
decreases  the  legitimate  demand  for  skilled  mechanics, 
but  it  is  fallacious.  In  the  first  place  a  thousand  things 
are  now  made  where  one  thing  was  made  fifty  years  ago. 
In  the  second  place  the  extensive  use  of  steam  and 
electricity  greatly  enlarges  the  sphere  wherein  accurate 
work  becomes  absolutely  essential  to  human  safety,  and 
hence  extends  the  field  of  operations  of  the  inventive 
faculty.  In  the  third  place  the  cost  of  machine-tool 
made  products  having  been  greatly  reduced,  competition 
is  proportionately  intensified,  thus  narrowing  the  mar- 
gin of  profit,  and  so  rendering  any  injury  to  machinery 


THE  MACHINE-TOOL  LABORATORY.  97 

through  want  of  skill  in  the  operator  relatively  more 
disastrous.  As  a  matter  of  fact  a  line  machine-tool  is 
more  liable  than  a  watch  to  get  out  of  order  through 
careless  handling,  and  it  no  more  than  a  watch,  can  be 
properly  repaired  by  a  bungler.  It  follows  that  skill  in 
the  use  of  machine-tools  is  as  essential  to  a  successful 
mechanical  career  now,  as  skill  in  the  use  of  hand-tools 
was  formerly. 

But  another  conclusion  follows  more  irresistably,  name- 
ly— that  the  civil  engineer  who  devotes  his  attention  to 
the  construction  and  management  of  massive  machinery, 
such  as  pumps,  hydraulic  and  lever  presses,  looms,  and 
steam-engines,  whether  locomotive,  marine,  or  other,  must, 
in  order  to  be  master  of  his  profession,  be  thoroughly 
familiar  with  every  step  of  their  construction ;  and  such 
familiarity  can  only  be  acquired  by  a  course  of  practical 
study  in  the  machine-tool  shop.  It  is  the  province  of 
the  civil  engineer  to  utilize  certain  forces  of  nature  in 
the  service  of  man,  and  it  is  only  through  the  machine- 
tool  shop  that  such  utilization  can  be  effected.  It  hence 
follows  that  a  practical  acquaintance  with  the  manipula- 
tions of  the  machine-tool  shop  is  an  essential  prerequisite 
to  a  successful  career  in  the  field  of  higher  mechanics. 
The  man  who  aspires  to  construct  any  great  mechanical 
engineering  work,  like  the  Brooklyn  Bridge,  for  exam- 
ple, must  know  the  exact  mechanical  power  of  every 
piece  of  machinery  he  employs,  as  also  the  exact  me- 
chanical value  of  every  piece  of  iron  that  enters  into  the 
structure ;  and  these  things  he  cannot  know  unless  he 
is  familiar  with  the  entire  series  of  iron  manipulations, 
from  those  of  the  foundery  to  those  of  the  machine-tool 
shop. 

The  aspect  of  the  Machine-tool  Laboratory  when  in  re- 

5 


98  MANUAL  TKAIN1NG. 

pose,  so  to  speak,  is  dull  and  uninteresting,  not  to  say 
repellant.  There  are  twenty-four  engine-lathes,  as  many 
adjustable  vises,  a  milling  machine,  and  a  variety  of  aux- 
iliary tools.  The  lathes  are  supported  by  dingy-looking 
cast-iron  frames,  and  under  each  lathe  there  is  a  chest  of 
drawers  containing  a  set  of  tools.  Overhead  there  is  a 
wilderness  of  pulleys  and  shafting,  which  seems  to  the 
untrained  eye  to  have  very  little  relation  to  the  machines 
below.  The  working  parts  of  the  lathes  show  burnished 
steel  surfaces,  which  reflect  coldly  the  glare  of  yellow 
sunlight  flooding  the  room.  If  it  were  moonlight  instead 
of  sunlight  one  might  summon  the  ghosts  of  those  daring 
men  who  hundreds  and  thousands  of  years  ago  dreamed 
audaciously  of  the  future  of  applied  mechanics.  Roger 
Bacon  must  have  had  a  vision  of  the  machine-tool  shop 
when  he  said,  "  I  will  now  mention  some  of  the  wonder- 
ful works  of  art  and  nature  in  which  there  is  nothing  of 
magic,  and  which  magic  could  not  perform.  Instruments 
may  be  made  by  which  the  largest  ships,  with  only  one 
man  guiding  them,  will  be  carried  with  greater  velocity 
than  if  they  were  full  of  sailors;  chariots  may  be  con- 
structed that  will  move  with  incredible  rapidity  without 
the  help  of  animals ;  a  small  instrument  may  be  made  to 
raise  or  depress  the  greatest  weights ;  an  instrument  may 
be  fabricated  by  which  one  man  may  draw  a  thousand 
men  to  him  by  force  and  against  their  will ;  as  also  ma- 
chines which  will  enable  men  to  walk  at  the  bottom  of 
seas  or  rivers  without  danger." 

When  steam  is  "  turned  on  "  the  aspect  of  the  Machine- 
tool  Laboratory  is  completely  changed.  Steam  is,  indeed, 
the  arch-revolutionist ;  it  breathes  the  breath  of  life  into 
inanimate  things — makes  them  think,  speak,  and  act.  The 
low  hum  of  unused  machinery  first  salutes  the  ear ;  then 


THE  MACHINE-TOOL  LABOKATOKY.  99 

the  students  take  their  places.  They  are  three  years  older 
than  when  we  encountered  them  in  the  engine-room. 
They  are  from  seventeen  to  twenty  years  of  age.  They 
are  no  longer  boys ;  they  are  young  men — robust,  hearty- 
looking  young  men.  Their  bearing  is  very  resolute — re- 
markably resolute ;  their  attitude  is  erect.  They  are  full- 
chested,  muscular-armed,  frank-faced  young  men.  In  tho 
three  years'  course  now  drawing  to  a  close  they  have 
learned  how  to  do  many  things,  and  hence  they  show  a 
good  degree  of  confidence.  But  the  dominant  expression 
on  all  the  interesting  young  faces  is,  after  all,  one  of  mod- 
esty ;  so  true  is  it  that  every  acquisition  of  knowledge,  and 
especially  practical  knowledge,  not  on  ly  stimulates  desire 
to  learn  more,  but  enlightens  the  perception  as  to  the 
magnitude  of  the  field  of  further  inquiry.  As  the  addition 
of  a  useful  thing  to  the  world's  stock  of  things  creates  a 
demand  for  a  score  more  of  useful  things,  so  the  addition 
of  a  fact  to  the  student's  stock  of  facts  not  only  creates  a 
desire  for  more  facts,  but  strengthens  the  mind  for  the 
prosecution  of  the  study. 

It  may  be  that  there  are  vain  statesmen,  philosophers, 
priests,  and  kings,  but  we  should  as  little  expect  to  find 
a  vain  mechanic  as  a  vain  scientist. 

These  twenty-four  students  may  go  out  into  the  wrorld 
to-morrow  to  make  their  way.  Some  of  them  will  en- 
ter upon  the  stage  of  active  life,  others  will  continue 
their  studies  in  higher  schools  of  literature,  science,  and 
art ;  but  whether  they  go  or  stay,  if  they  have  made  the 
most  of  their  opportunities  in  the  Manual  Training  School 
they  have  learned  the  lesson  of  modesty,  and  learned  to 
respect  labor,  not  only  as  a  means  of  earning  one's  daily 
bread,  but  as  the  most  powerful  and  the  most  healthful 
mental  and  moral  stimulant. 


100  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

Steam  is  on,  and  the  students  standing  at  the  lathes 
are  impatient  to  begin.  It  is  not  a  lesson  in  the  ordi- 
nary sense.  Each  student  works  independently  of  special 
direction,  for  each  is  engaged  in  making  a  machine — the 
graduating  project.  The  instructor  is  at  hand,  not  to 
dictate  but  to  advise,  if  requested.  From  his  fund  of 
experience  as  the  elder  scholar  he  will  answer  questions 
propounded  by  his  younger  fellow-students.  In  front  of 
the  students,  parts  of  the  working  drawings  may  be  seen. 
It  is  plain  that  there  is  to  be  variety  in  the  exhibit  of 
"projects."  There  are  several  steam-engines,  differing 
in  model ;  there  is  a  steam-pump,  a  punching  machine, 
a  lathe,  an  electric  machine,  and  a  steam-hammer. 

At  a  sign  work  commences — a  dozen  varieties  of  work, 
emitting  a  dozen  tones  of  buzzing  and  whizzing.  The 
instructor's  face  lights  up  with  a  pleased  expression  as 
he  notes  the  progress  of  the  work.  There  is  no  sign 
of  hesitation  in  the  class ;  no  questions  are  asked ;  the 
students  seem  to  be  driving  straight  to  the  mark.  The 
instructor's  heart  swells  with  pride ;  he  can  trust "  his 
boys !"  lie  has  been  regarding  them  with  an  expression 
of  affection,  but  now  his  eyes  wander — they  have  a  far- 
away look.  He  no  longer  sees  the  students,  he  is  look- 
ing beyond  them.  He  drops  into  a  reclining  attitude, 
sighs,  falls  into  a  reverie,  and  dreams.  In  his  dream  he 
sees  naked  savages,  emerging  from  caves,  armed  with 
clubs,  pursuing  animals.  These  are  succeeded  by  men 
bearing  rude  stone  implements  —  axes  and  hammers — 
and  these  in  turn  by  men  armed  with  bows  and  arrows, 
but  half-clothed  with  skins  of  beasts,  and  crouching  and 
shivering  beneath  the  shelter  of  the  branches  of  a  tree 
pulled  downward  and  secured  by  clods  of  earth.  This 
picture  disappears,  and  is  replaced  by  a  pastoral  scene 


THE   MACHINE-TOOL  LABORATORY.  101 

—a  vast  plain  covered  with  flocks  and  herds.  In  the 
foreground  stands  the  shepherd,  and  in  the  distance  his 
tent,  consisting  of  skins  of  beasts  stretched  on  poles,  and  in 
the  tent  door  a  woman  sits  pounding  a  fleece  into  felt. 
The  shepherd,  his  flocks  and  herds,  his  tent,  and  the 
woman  in  the  tent  door,  vanish  like  the  mists  of  morn- 
ing, and  where  the  shepherd  was,  the  husbandman  is  seen 
harvesting  the  golden  grain  ;  and  in  the  shadow  of  the 
cottage  which  has  replaced  the  tent  a  woman  is  pound- 
ing corn.  The  scene  again  changes  —  the  plain  has  be- 
come the  site  of  a  great  city.  The  city  is  protected  by 
thick,  high  walls,  surmounted  with  frowning  battlements. 
Sentinels  pace  back  and  forth  along  the  parapet.  Huge 
helmets  protect  their  heads,  and  their  bodies  are  clothed 
in  armor.  Quivers  full  of  bronze-tipped  arrows  depend 
from  their  shoulders,  in  their  hands  they  carry  long 
bows,  and  the  clank,  clank  of  their  broad,  two-edged, 
bronze  swords  breaks  the  dull,  monotonous  routine  of 
their  march.  A  brazen  gate  swings  back  noiselessly  on 
brazen  hinges,  and  bowing  to  the  sentinel,  the  dreamer  as 
noiselessly  glides  into  the  city.  Suddenly  he  feels  the 
hot  breath  of  the  f  oundery  furnace-fire,  and  is  blinded  by 
a  glare  of  red  light.  Shading  his  eyes  he  sees  dusky 
forms  hurrying  to  and  fro  with  ladles  full  of  molten 
metal.  Turning  away  he  hears  the  heavy  stroke  of  the 
sledge,  and  looking,  beholds  a  dusty,  smoky  smithy.  The 
stalwart  smith  drops  the  sledge  at  his  side,  rests  one  foot 
on  the  anvil-block,  and  wipes  the  sweat  from  his  brow  ; 
the  helper  thrusts  the  cooling  iron  into  the  coals,  bends 
to  the  bellows,  and  the  forge-fire  sings.  At  the  sound  of 
a  bell  the  dreamer  starts,  the  old  Assyrian  city  falls  into 
ruins,  the  ruins  crumble  into  dust,  and  on  this  dust  an- 
other city  rises,  flourishes,  falls,  and  piles  the  dust  of 


OF  CALIFORNIA 


102  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

its  ruins.  Over  a  waste  of  years — twenty  centuries — the 
dreamer's  thought  flashes,  and  he  stands  in  the  presence 
of  the  Alexandrian  mechanic-philosopher.  He  sees  Hero 
in  the  public  street,  gazing  abstractedly  at  his  condensed- 
air  fountain,  and  follows  him  into  his  shop  or  laboratory, 
an.d  observes  him  curiously  as  he  toys  with  the  model  of 
a  queer  little  steam-engine.  "  This  is  the  Iron  Age,  but 
in  its  infancy,"  he  exclaims  under  his  breath,  as  his  eyes 
wander  from  a  fine  Damascus  blade  hanging  against  the 
wall  to  some  poor  hand-tools  lying  on  the  working-bench. 
"  I  will  speak  to  this  old  man,"  he  continues,  "  and  ask 
him  to  step  into  my  Machine-tool  Laboratory,  and  see  my 
boys  make  steam-engines ;  it  will  be  a  revelation  to  him. 
Come,  old  friend  —  there  —  look !"  And  the  dreamer 
looks.  Does  he  see  double?  The  laboratory  is  un- 
changed ;  steam  is  still  on ;  the  whir  of  machinery  and 
the  buzzing  sound  of  steam-driven  tools  salute  the  ear, 
and  the  students  are  all  busy  at  their  benches  finishing 
parts  of  "projects"  and  adjusting  them  in  their  places. 
But  there  are  twenty-four  other  men — shades  of  men — in 
the  laboratory.  Most  of  them  are  old ;  some  are  in  work- 
ing clothes,  others  in  full  dress,  wearing  ribbons  and  or- 
ders of  merit.  Over  each  student  one  of  these  shades 
bends  with  an  air  of  absorbing  attention.  The  dreamer 
recognizes  Papin,  Fulton,  Watt,  and  Stephenson  shadow- 
ing the  students  engaged  in  the  construction  of  engines. 
They  beckon  Hero,  and  he  joins  the  group,  threading  his 
way  timidly  between  the  lines  of  lathes,  and  looking 
askance  at  the  rapidly  revolving  wheels  and  flying  belts. 
Over  the  shoulders  of  other  students  are  seen  the  faces 
of  Maudslay,  Bramah,  Clement,  Roberts,  Whitney,  !N"a- 
smyth,  Huntsman,  Cort,  Murray,  Dudley,  Yarranton,  Roe- 
buck, and  Whitworth,  besides  several  unfamiliar  faces. 


THE  MACHINE-TOOL  LABORATORY.  103 

Suddenly  they  all  gather  about  a  nearly  completed  proj- 
ect—  a  stationary  engine.  They  witness  the  forcing 
home  of  the  last'Screw;  they  see  the  miniature  machine 
made  fast  to  the  bench.  Steam  is  let  into  the  cylinders. 
The  student's  flushed  face  is  in  sharp  contrast  with  the 
colorless  faces  of  the  group  of  old  men  by  whom  he  is 
surrounded.  The  piston-rod  moves  languidly — the  ma- 
chine trembles  as  if  awaking  from  slumber,  the  shaft  os- 
cillates slowly,  then  faster,  then  regularly,  like  a  strong 
pulse-beat.  The  project  is  a  success — the  first  one  com- 
pleted! The  student's  face  turns  pale — as  pale  as  the 
white  faces  of  the  old  men  at  his  side.  They  open  their 
lips  as  if  to  cheer  him,  but  no  sound  is  heard.  He 
breathes  quick — almost  gasps;  his  heart  beats  loudly;  he 
tries  to  shout  but  cannot  utter  a  word.  At  last  he  claps 
his  hands !  The  instructor  starts  from  his  chair,  rubs  his 
eyes,  and  stares  around  the  laboratory.  All  the  students 
are  there,  gathered  in  a  group  about  the  finished  "  proj- 
ect," but  the  ghostly  shades  of  the  old  inventors  have 
vanished  like  the  unsubstantial  fabric  of  a  vision. 

The  "  projects  "  are  not  all  finished  on  the  same  day. 
Some  of  them  are  far  more  complicated  than  others,  and 
some  students  are  more  skilled  than  others.  All  are  very 
busy.  It  is  not  improper  to  ask  questions  relating  to  work 
on  the  graduating  projects ;  the  instructor  is  at  hand  to 
answer  such  questions.  But  it  is  a  point  of  honor  not 
to  ask  a  question  if  the  difficulty  can  possibly  be  other- 
wise overcome.  Hence  very  few  questions  are  asked. 

The  last  week  of  the  term  is  a  very  trying  one  to 
all  concerned.  The  students  are  reticent  and  unusual- 
ly silent;  all  are  anxious,  some  are  timid — the  nervous 
tension  is  extreme.  The  instructor  becomes  taciturn 
under  a  painful  sense  of  compulsory  isolation  from  his 


104  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

class,  towards  all  the  members  of  which  he  has,  for  three 
years,  sustained  fraternal  rather  than  dictatorial  relations. 
But  as  the  projects  are,  one  by  one,  completed,  the  atmos- 
phere clears.  When  the  student  realizes  that  his  project 
is  certainly  not  to  be  a  failure,  his  face  lightens  and  he  is 
pleased  to  discuss  its  "  points  "  with  the  instructor.  The 
instructor  is  delighted  to  resume  his  former  relations 
with  the  class,  the  feeling  of  constraint  is  dispelled,  and 
the  graduation-day  exercises  are  contemplated  with  con- 
fidence. 


MANUAL  AND   MENTAL  TKAINING  COMBINED.        105 


CHAPTER  X. 
MANUAL  AND  MENTAL  TRAINING  COMBINED. 

The  new  Education  is  all-sided  —  its  Effect.  —  A  Harmonious  Devel- 
opment of  the  Whole  Being.  —  Examination  for  Admission  to  the 
Chicago  School.  —  List  of  Questions  in  Arithmetic,  Geography,  and 
Language.  —  The  Curriculum.  —  The  Alternation  of  Manual  and 
Mental  Exercises.  —  The  Demand  for  Scientific  Education  —  its 
Effect.  —  Ambition  to  be  useful. 


have  now  passed  in  review  all  the  school  labora- 
tories, from  the  engine-room,  or  laboratory  where  power 
is  generated,  to  the  Machine-tool  Laboratory  where  pow- 
er is  utilized,  or  harnessed,  and  compelled  to  do  the  work 
of  man.  We  have  observed  the  student,  in  his  first 
effort  over  the  drawing-board,  struggling  laboriously  to 
make  a  straight  line,  and  in  the  Laboratory  of  Carpentry, 
trying  with  varying  success  to  make  a  tenon  fit  the  mor- 
tise, and  we  have  stood  by  his  side  in  the  Machine-tool 
Laboratory  in  the  moment  of  his  triumph  exhibiting  his 
graduating  "  project  "  —  a  miniature  engine  throbbing  un- 
der the  pressure  of  steam,  and  doing  its  work  with  ad- 
mirable precision.  But  we  have  seen  only  the  manual 
side  of  the  curriculum.  The  mental  side  is  still  to  be 
shown.  The  claim  made  in  behalf  of  the  new  education 
is  that  it  is  better  balanced  than  the  x)ld,  that  it  is  all- 
sided,  that  it  produces  a  harmonious  development  of  the 
whole  being,  that  it  makes  of  the  student  a  man  fully 
furnished  for  the  battle  of  life,  mentally,  morally,  and 
physically.  Accordingly  the  curriculum  of  the  Manual 
Training  School  combines  with  the  laboratory  exercises 

5* 


106  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

a  variety  of  mental  exercises  of  quite  a  comprehensive 
character ;  and  first,  certain  mental  acquirements  are  nec- 
essary to  admission,  as  witness  the  following  from  the 
first  catalogue  of  the  Chicago  school : 

"  Candidates  for  admission  to  the  first  year  must  be  at 
least  fourteen  years  of  age,  and  must  present  sufficient 
evidence  of  good  moral  character.  They  must  pass  a 
satisfactory  examination  in  reading,  spelling,  writing,  ge- 
ography, English  composition,  and  the  fundamental  oper- 
ations of  arithmetic  as  applied  to  integers,  common  and 
decimal  fractions,  and  denominate  numbers.  Ability  to 
use  the  English  language  correctly  is  especially  desired." 

The  following  questions  were  used  at  the  first  exami- 
ation  for  admission  to  the  Chicago  school. 

ARITHMETIC. 

Transcribe  work  sufficient  to  show  processes.  No 
credit  given  for  results  alone. 

1.  Change  to  decimals  and  find  the  sum  of  £,  |,  ^,  •&,  ££. 

2.  Divide  the  product  of  28f  and  13£  by  the  difference  of  8T\ 
and4£. 

3.  Divide  .00875  by  12f 

4.  Reduce  .395  of  a  mile  to  integers. 

5.  If  a  locomotive  move  f  of  a  mile  in  |£  of  an  hour,  what  is  its 
speed  per  hour? 

6.  A  man  invested  £  of  his  money  in  land,  .125  of  it  in  stocks, 
$12,000  in  a  vessel,  and  had  $55,500  remaining.     How  much  did  he 
invest  in  land? 

7.  Bought  a  square  mile  of  land  at  $75  an  acre.     I  reserved  160 
acres  of  it  for  streets  and  alleys,  and  divided  the  remainder  into  lots 
each  66  feet  front  by  200  feet  deep,  all  of  which  I  sold  for  $15  per 
front  foot.     The  expense  of  surveying,  etc.,  was  $2000.     What  did  I 
gain? 

8.  How  many  balls,  each  \  of  an  inch  in  diameter,  are  equal  in 
weight  to  a  ball  of  the  same  material  1  foot  in  diameter? 

9.  Find  cost  of  material  for  making  box,  inside  measurement  4  by 


MANUAL  AND  MENTAL  TRAINING  COMBINED.        109 

2  by  3  feet,  of  inch  lumber,  worth  $30  per  M.,  -^  of  the  lumber  pur- 
chased being  wasted.  Include  in  the  cost  7  dozen  screws  at  $1.80 
per  gross. 

10.  What  is  the  height  of  a  rectangular  cistern  capable  of  contain- 
ing 600  gallons,  the  bottom  of  which  is  7  by  11  feet,  inside  measure- 
ment? 

GEOGRAPHY. 

1.  Name  the  five  most  populous  cities  of  the  United  States  in 
order  of  population.     On  what  water  is  St.  Petersburg?    Dublin? 
•Rome?    Calcutta?    Cairo? 

2.  Locate  the  principal  coal  fields  and  iron  regions  of  the  United 
States.    What  minerals  occur  in  Illinois? 

3.  Draw  map  of  Illinois,  showing  by  what  States  and  by  what 
waters  bounded.    Locate  the  capital  and  the  largest  city  of  Illinois. 

4.  Name  the  outlet  of  Lake  Erie;  of  Lake  Champlain;  of  Great 
Salt  Lake;  of  the  Black  Sea;  of  Lake  Victoria  Nyanza. 

5.  Compare  the  latitude  and  climate  of  Spain  and  Illinois. 

6.  How  does  the  island  of  Great  Britain  compare  in  area  with  the 
United  States,  or  with  any  one  of  the  United  States  which  you  may 
mention? 

7.  How  do  the  Alps  compare  in  height  with  the  Rocky  Mount- 
ains?   Name  the  highest  peak  in  Europe;  in  North  America;  in 
South  America;  in  the  world. 

8.  How  does  climate  vary  with  altitude  above  the  sea  level?    Il- 
lustrate by  an  example. 

9.  What  is  the  cause  of  day  and  night?    Of  changes  of  seasons? 
What  is  latitude?    Longitude? 

10.  When  it  is  11  A.M.  by  "  Central  Time  "  in  Chicago,  what  is  the 
hour  by  "Eastern  Time  "in  New  York  City?    What  is  the  hour  in 
London?    Is  "  Central  Time  "  in  Chicago  the  true  time?    Why? 

Or,  in  place  of  the  last  question :  What  are  the  termini  of  the 
Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal?  What  waters  are  connected  by  the 
Suez  Canal?  Of  what  water  route  does  the  Suez  Canal  take  the 
place? 

LANGUAGE. 

1.  Correct  in  every  particular,  and  give  reason  for  each  correction: 

a.  The  man  which  was  sick  has  went  to  his  work. 

b.  Every  person  should  attend  to  their  own  affairs. 

c.  Such  expressions  sound  harshly. 


110  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

d.  Between  you  and  I,  this  is  a  real  easy  examination. 

e.  The  cause  of  the  tides  were  not  wholly  unknown  to  the  an- 
cients. 

2.  "Pleasantly  rose  next  morning  the  sun  on  the  village  of  Grand 
Pre." 

How  is  the  idea  of  the  rising  of  the  sun  modified? 

3.  "Flashed  all  their  sabres  bare, 

Flashed  as  they  turned  in  air, 
Sab'ring  the  gunners  there, 
Charging  an  army,  while 

All  the  world  wondered." 
Change  to  good  prose. 

4.  State  the  meaning  of  each  prefix  and  suffix  in  the  following 
words:    Emigrate;  Immigrate;  Illegally;  Admissible;  Thoughtless- 
ness; Affixing. 

5.  a.  Why  is  the  final  e  of  "service"  retained  in  "serviceable?" 

b.  Write  the  present  participle  of  "befit;"  of  "benefit." 

What  difference  in  spelling?    Why? 

c.  Define  Ancient;  Venerable;  Obsolete. 

6.  Write  an  essay  on  Chicago,  mentioning  the  rapid  growth  of  the 
city;  its  land  and  water  communications;  its  commerce  and  manu- 
factures; its  public  buildings;  its  institutions  of  learning  and  charity, 
and  any  other  items  which  may  occur  to  you. 

Having  passed  the  ordeal  of  the  foregoing  battery  of 
questions  the  student  of  the  Chicago  Manual  Training 
School  finds  his  mental  exercises  alternated  with  manual 
exercises  throughout  the  entire  course  in  something  like 
the  following  order,  namely : 

FIRST  YEAR. — Arithmetic,  Algebra,  English  Language,  History, 
Physiology,  Physical  Geography,  Free  -  hand  and  Mechanical  Draw- 
ing. Laboratory  Work :  Carpentry,  Wood  -  carving,  Wood  -  turning, 
Pattern-making,  Proper  Care  and  Use  of  Tools. 

SECOND  YEAR.  —  Algebra,  Plane  Geometry,  Physics,  Mechanics, 
History,  Literature,  Geometrical  and  Mechanical  Drawing.  Labo- 
ratory Work :  Moulding,  Casting,  Forging,  Welding,  Tempering,  Sol- 
dering, and  Brazing. 

THIRD  YEAR.— Geometry,  Plane  Trigonometry,  Book-keeping, 
Literature,  Political  Economy,  Civil  Government,  Mechanics,  Chem- 


MANUAL  AND   MENTAL  TEAIN1NG  COMBINED.        Hi 

istry,  Machine  and  Architectural  Drawing.  Machine-tool  Laboratory 
Work,  such  as  Chipping,  Filing,  Fitting,  Turning,  Drilling,  Planing, 
etc.  Study  of  Machinery,  including  the  Management  and  Care  of 
Steam-engines  and  Boilers. 

Latin  may  be  taken  instead  of  English  Language,  Lit- 
erature, and  History.  Instruction  will  be  given  each 
year  in  the  properties  of  the  materials — wood,  iron,  brass, 
etc. — used  in  that  year. 

Throughout  the  course,  one  hour  per  day,  or  more, 
will  be  given  to  drawing,  and  not  less  than  two  hours 
per  day  to  laboratory  work.  The  remainder  of  the 
school  day  will  be  devoted  to  study  and  recitation.  Be- 
fore graduating,  each  pupil  will  be  required  to  construct 
a  machine  from  drawings  and  patterns  made  by  himself. 
A  diploma  will  be  given  on  graduation. 

The  new  education  is  a  blending  of  manual  and  men- 
tal training.  It  recognizes  the  fact  that  science  discov- 
ers and  art  utilizes,  and  that  these  two  forces  move  the 
modern  world. 

At  present  the  Manual  Training  School  is  a  missionary 
enterprise.  Its  purpose  is  to  create  in  the  public  mind 
an  imperative  demand  for  the  incorporation  of  its  scien- 
tific methods  into  the  public-school  course  of  instruction. ' 

A  vast  majority  of  our  people  are  employed  in  the 
useful  arts,  and  distinction  in  every  department  of  labor 
now  depends  upon  scientific  education.  Without  tech- 
nical education  or  manual  training  the  laborer  of  the 
future  cannot  hope  to  rise  above  the  grade  of  a  piece  of 
automatic  machinery.  He  falls  into  the  routine  of  the 
shop  like  a  cog  or  lever  moved  by  steam.  To  avert  this 
dire  misfortune  our  common  schools  must  be  made 
institutions  for  manual  as  well  as  intellectual  training. 
They  must  inculcate  the  dignity  of  labor  not  by  precept 


112  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

merely,  but  by  example.  It  is  not  enough  that  schools 
of  technology,  polytechnic  institutes,  and  manual  train- 
ing schools  are  being  established  here  and  there  by  pri- 
vate subscription.  The  supply  of  these  classes  of  edu- 
cation is  only  a  drop  in  the  bucket  to  the  public  demand. 
Technical  and  manual  training  must  be  made  part  of  the 
general  public  educational  system.  In  our  city  high- 
schools  we  now  fit  boys  for  college.  In  those  schools 
we  must  hereafter  fit  them  for  the  colleges  of  art. 
When  this  shall  have  become  the  fashion  in  education 
there  will  be  thousands  of  high -school  graduates  with 
a  grand  passion  for  mechanical  pursuits  —  boys  with 
more  curiosity  on  the  subject  of  the  expansive  force  of 
steam  than  on  the  subject  of  "  Greek  roots ;"  with  more 
ambition  to  invent  something  useful  to  mankind  than  to 
learn  how  to  draw  a  bill  in  chancery ;  with  a  stronger  de- 
sire to  discover  a  new  secret  in  electricity  than  to  carry 
off  a  prize  for  the  best  Latin  oration. 


THE  INTELLECTUAL  EFFECT  OF  MANUAL  TRAINING.  H3 


CHAPTER  XI. 
THE  INTELLECTUAL  EFFECT  OF  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

Intelligence  is  the  Basis  of  Character. — The  more  Practical  the  In- 
telligence the  Higher  the  Development  of  Character. — The  use  of 
Tools  quickens  the  Intellect. — Making  Things  rouses  the  Attention, 
sharpens  the  Observation,  and  steadies  the  Judgment. — History 
of  Inventions  in  England,  1740-1840. — Poor,  Ignorant  Apprentices 
become  learned  Men.  —  Cort,  Huntsman,  Mushet,  Neilson,  Ste- 
phenson,  and  "Watt. — The  Union  of  Books  and  Tools. — Results  at 
Rotterdam,  Holland ;  at  Moscow,  Russia ;  at  Komotau,  Bohemia ; 
and  at  St.  Louis,  Mo. — The  Consideration  of  Overwhelming  Import. 

THE  quality  of  all  civilizations  depends  upon  intelli- 
gence and  character,  or  morality,  in  the  order  stated ;  for 
morality  springs  from  intelligence,  not  intelligence  from 
morality.  This  is  an  axiomatic  deduction  of  historic 
analysis.*  Nor  would  it  be  difficult  to  prove  that  prao- 

*  "But  if  we  contrast  this  stationary  aspect  of  moral  truths  with 
the  progressive  aspect  of  intellectual  truths,  the  difference  is,  indeed, 
startling.  .  .  .  These  are  to  every  educated  man  recognized  and  no- 
torious facts,  and  the  inference  to  be  drawn  from  them  is  immedi- 
ately obvious.  Since  civilization  is  the  product  of  moral  and  intel- 
lectual agencies,  and  since  that  product  is  constantly  changing,  it 
evidently  cannot  be  regulated  by  the  stationary  agent;  because  when 
surrounding  circumstances  are  unchanged,  a  stationary  agent  can 
only  produce  a  stationary  effect.  The  only  other  agent  is  the  intel- 
lectual one,  and  that  this  is  the  real  mover  may  be  proved  in  two 
distinct  ways :  first,  because  being,  as  we  have  already  seen,  either 
moral  or  intellectual,  and  being,  as  we  have  also  seen,  not  moral,  it 
must  be  intellectual ;  and  secondly,  because  the  intellectual  principle 
has  an  activity  and  a  capacity  for  adaptation  which,  as  I  undertake 
to  show,  is  quite  sufficient  to  account  for  the  extraordinary  progress 


114  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

tical  intelligence  is  more  conducive  to  a  high  develop- 
ment of  morals  than  mere  theoretical  intelligence.  For 
is  it  not  true  that  the  nations  most  skilled  in  the  useful 
arts  are  most  highly  cultured  in  morals?  And  if  it  be 
true,  it  constitutes  a  potential  argument  in  support  of 
joining  to  intellectual  instruction  in  the  schools  a  course 
of  training  in  the  elements  of  the  useful  arts.  And  of 
the  fact  which  forms  the  basis  of  this  argument  there  is 
a  logical  explanation. 

Nothing  stimulates  and  quickens  the  intellect  more 
than  the  use  of  mechanical  tools.  The  boy  who  begins 
to  construct  things  is  compelled  at  once  to  begin  to  think, 
deliberate,  reason,  and  conclude.  As  he  proceeds  he  is 
brought  in  contact  with  powerful  natural  forces.  If  he 
would  control,  direct,  and  apply  these  forces  he  must 
first  master  the  laws  by  which  they  are  governed ;  he 
must  investigate  the  causes  of  the  phenomena  of  matter, 
and  it  will  be  strange  if  from  this  he  is  not  also  led  to  a 
study  of  the  phenomena  of  mind.  At  the  very  threshold 
of  practical  mechanics  a  thirst  for  wisdom  is  engendered, 
and  the  student  is  irresistibly  impelled  to  investigate  the 
mysteries  of  philosophy.  Thus  the  training  of  the  eye 
and  the  hand  reacts  upon  the  brain,  stimulating  it  to  ex- 
cursions into  the  realm  of  scientific  discovery  in  search 
of  facts  to  be  applied  in  practical  forms  at  the  bench  and 
the  anvil. 

The  history  of  invention  and  discovery  in  England  af- 
fords a  striking  confirmation  of  the  truth  of  the  propo- 
sition that  mechanical  investigation,  with  tools  in  hand, 
stimulates  the  intellectual  faculties  to  the  highest  point 

that,  during  several  centuries,  Europe  has  continued  to  make." — 
Buckle's  "History  of  Civilization,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  130.  D.  Appleton  & 
Co.,  1864. 


THE  INTELLECTUAL  EFFECT  OF  MANUAL  TRAINING.    115 

of  activity  and  excellence.  The  germs  of  nearly  all  the 
great  inventions  in  mechanics,  the  benefit  of  which  the 
world  is  now  enjoying  in  such  ample  measure,  are  direct- 
ly traceable  to  the  workshops  of  Great  Britain  during 
the  period  1740-1840. 

England  had  then  no  popular  system  of  education,  and 
the  apprentices  in  her  shops  were  poor,  obscure,  and,  at 
the  start,  illiterate.  But  to  those  poor  apprentices  the 
honor  of  the  great  inventions  and  discoveries  of  that  age 
is  almost  wholly  due.  And  it  is  a  notable  fact  that  in 
the  struggle  to  invent  tools  and  machines,  to  master  the 
art  of  mechanism,  to  steal  from  Nature  her  secret  forces, 
and  harness  and  use  them  for  the  benefit  of  mankind,  the 
toiling  workers  not  infrequently  became  highly  educated, 
intellectual  giants,  familiar  not  alone  with  special  studies, 
but  masters  of  many  branches  of  learning. 

In  1TTO  the  Russian  Government,  aware  of  the  inferi- 
ority of  English  iron,  and  deeming  Russian  iron  essential 
to  England,  directed  the  price  of  iron  for  export  to  be 
raised  three  hundred  per  cent.  This  arbitrary  act  stim- 
ulated invention.  Henry  Cort,  the  son  of  a  brick-maker, 
entered  upon  a  series  of  experiments,  with  a  view  to  the 
improvement  of  English  iron.  They  occupied  several 
years,  and  were  of  a  very  expensive  character — so  expen- 
sive as  eventually  to  bankrupt  the  man  who  made  them. 
They  were,  however,  so  successful  as  to  constitute  a  splen- 
did epoch  in  the  history  of  metallurgy.  In  1786  Lord 
Sheffield  declared  that  Cort's  improvements  in  iron,  and 
the  steam-engine  of  Watt,  were  of  more  value  to  Great 
Britain  than  the  thirteen  colonies  of  America;  and  in 
1862  it  was  estimated  that  those  improvements  had  added 
three  thousand  million  dollars  to  the  wealth  of  England 
alone,  to  say  nothing  of  the  rest  of  the  world  of  iron 


116  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

manufacture  throughout  which  they  had  been  applied. 
But  the  only  estate  secured  by  this  great  man  as  a  re- 
ward of  his  genius  and  a  life  of  toil,  as  his  biographer 
pathetically  remarks,  was  "  the  little  domain  of  six  feet 
by  two  in  which  he  lies  buried  in  Hampstead  church- 
yard." 

In  1715  Sheffield  contained  two  thousand  inhabitants, 
of  whom  one-third  wrere  beggars.  Its  manufactures  con- 
sisted of  jews -harps,  tobacco-boxes,  and  knives.  Shef- 
field is  now  the  chief  seat  of  the  steel  manufacture  of 
the  world.  The  initial  step  in  this  great  transformation 
scene  wras  taken  by  Benjamin  Huntsman.  He  was  born 
in  1704,  and  bred  to  a  mechanical  calling.  The  early 
years  of  his  life  were  spent  in  the  occupation  of  clock 
making  and  repairing.  He  was  shrewd,  observant,  and 
practical,  and  he  gradually  extended  the  scope  of  his 
profession  to  repairing,  and  finally  to  making  hand-tools. 
In  this  branch  of  his  trade  he  detected  defects  in  the 
German  steel  in  common  use.  He  removed  from  Don- 
caster  to  Sheffield,  and  there  in  the  privacy  of  his  cottage 
studied  metallurgy,  and  for  years  labored  in  secret  over 
the  furnace  and  the  crucible.  His  numerous  failures 
were  subsequently  found  chronicled  in  masses  of  metal, 
in  various  stages  of  imperfection,  buried  in  the  earth. 
But  when  he  emerged  from  his  long  seclusion  he  offered 
to  his  fellow-mechanics  a  piece  of  cast-steel  so  hard  that 
they  declined  to  work  it.  He  sent  the  product  of  his 
works  to  France,  and  the  French  knives  and  razors  made 
from  it  and  imported  into  England  drove  the  Sheffield 
cutlery  from  the  market.  Then  the  Sheffield  cutlers 
sought  to  have  the  export  of  steel  prohibited.  Failing 
in  that  they  stole  Huntsman's  secret.  This  was  possible, 
since  the  process  had  not  been  patented.  The  story  of 


THE  INTELLECTUAL  EFFECT  OF  MANUAL  TRAINING.   117 

the  theft  is  told  in  a  little  work  entitled  "  The  Useful 
Metals  and  their  Alloys."  It  is  in  substance  that  one 
Walker,  an  iron-founder, "  disguised  himself  as  a  tramp, 
and  feigning  great  distress  and  abject  poverty,  appeared 
shivering  at  the  door  of  Huntsman's  foundery  late  one 
night  when  the  workmen  were  about  to  begin  their  la- 
bors at  steel-casting,  and  asked  for  permission  to  warm 
himself  by  the  furnace-fire."  He  was  permitted  to  enter, 
and  when  he  left  he  carried  away  the  secret  of  the  in- 
ventor of  cast-steel. 

Huntsman  was  a  member  of  the  Society  of  Friends, 
and  it  was  doubtless  on  that  account  that  he  declined  a 
membership  of  the  Royal  Society  tendered  to  him  in 
honor  of  his  great  discovery  or  invention  of  cast-steel. 

David  Mushet's  discovery  of  the  extraordinary  value 
of  black-band  iron-stone  in  1801  made  Scotland  a  first- 
class  iron-producing  country ;  and  Neilson's  invention  of 
the  hot-blast  in  1828  revolutionized  the  processes  of  iron 
manufacture  by  vastly  cheapening  them.  Both  these 
men  sprang  from  the  labor  class,  and  both  were  self- 
educated.  Through  almost  superhuman  efforts  they  rose 
from  poverty  and  obscurity  to  fame.  Mushet's  "Pa- 
pers on  Iron  and  Steel,"  in  the  language  of  Smiles," "  are 
among  the  most  valuable  original  contributions  to  the 
literature  of  iron  manufacture  that  have  yet  been  given 
to  the  world ;"  and  Neilson  was  made  a  member  of  the 
Royal  Society  in  recognition  of  his  distinguished  ability 
and  the  great  services  he  rendered  in  the  cause  of  the 
useful  arts. 

George  Stephenson  rose  from  the  coal-mine  to  the 
summit  of  renown  as  a  theoretical  and  practical  mechan- 
ic. While  employed  in  various  collieries  as  "  fireman  " 
and  "  plugman,"  he  acquired  a  thorough  knowledge  of 


118  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

the  engines  then  in  use,  taking  them  apart,  repairing,  and 
putting  them  together  again.  At  eighteen  years  of  age 
he  could  not  read.  In  the  course  of  two  years  attend- 
ance at  night-schools  he  learned  to  read,  write,  and  ci- 
pher.* Continuing  to  work  in  collieries,  he  employed  his 
leisure  hours  in  studying  mechanics  and  engineering,  and 
in  mending  clocks  and  shoes.  When  thirty-one  years  of 
age  he  was  appointed  "  enginewright "  at  Killing  worth 
Colliery,  at  a  salary  of  £100  a  year.  From  this  point  of 
time  dates  his  career  as  an  inventor.  His  first  locomo- 
tive was  completed  in  1814,  and  the  "Rocket"  made 
its  trial  trip  in  1829.  During  the  intervening  fifteen 
years  Stephenson  was  largely  engaged  in  the  engineering 
department  of  railway  enterprises  as  well  as  in  the  pros- 
ecution of  experiments  for  the  perfecting  of  locomotive 
engines.  The  most  eminent  engineers  of  the  time  doubt- 
ed the  practicability  of  the  locomotive,  and  continued 
to  recommend  stationary  engines,  while  Stephenson  was 
leading  up  to  the  "Rocket."  The  success  of  the  "Rock- 
et "  made  its  inventor  the  most  famous  mechanic  in  the 
world.  For  the  next  fifteen  years  he  was  the  leading 
spirit  in  all  the  great  railway  enterprises  of  England,  be- 

*  "  In  conclusion,  we  are  of  opinion  that  special  instruction  -which 
can  be  applied  to  the  material  would  be  at  once  more  fruitful  in  good 
results  and  more  attractive  if  the  pupil  could  go  from  the  class-room 
to  the  workshop  (laboratory)  to  practically  demonstrate  the  theories 
to  which  he  has  just  been  listening.  In  support  of  this  opinion  we 
might  add  the  observations  made  in  our  own  evening-schools,  where 
the  most  noteworthy  and  rapid  progress  is  made  in  those  cases  where 
the  pupil  has  occasion  to  put  into  actual  practice  on  the  material 
itself  the  instruction  which  he  has  received  in  the  drawing-class." — 
"Report  of  Committee  of  Council  of  Arts  and  Manufactures  of  the 
Province  of  Quebec,  created  to  Inquire  into  the  Question  of  Practical 
Schools." 


THE  INTELLECTUAL  EFFECT  OF  MANUAL  TRAINING.    119 

sides  being  called  repeatedly  to  Belgium  and  Spain  as 
consulting  engineer.  He  was  offered  a  fellowship  of  the 
Royal  Society,  also  one  in  the  Civil  Engineers'  Society, 
also  knighthood  by  Sir  Robert  Peel.  All  these  empty 
honors  he  declined.  "  I  have  to  state,"  he  said,  in  reply 
to  a  request  for  his  "  ornamental  initials,"  "  that  I  have 
no  flourishes  to  my  name,  either  before  or  after,  and  I 
think  it  will  be  as  well  if  you  merely  say  George  Ste- 
phenson."  He  may  justly  be  styled  the  founder  of  the 
existing  railway  system  of  the  world,  which  undoubtedly 
exerts  more  influence  upon  civilization  than  any  other 
one  cause  or  set  of  allied  causes ;  and  to  have  risen  from 
the  humblest  station  in  a  colliery  to  the  dignity  of  found- 
ing such  a  system  is  sufficient  evidence  of  a  gigantic  in- 
tellectual growth. 

James  Watt  was  an  extremely  fragile  child,  and  hence 
unable  to  join  in  the  rude  sports  of  robust  children.  Thus 
confined  within-doors  he  early  amused  himself  by  draw- 
ing "  with  a  pencil  upon  paper,,  or  with  chalk  upon  the 
floor."  He  was  also  supplied  with  a  few  tools  from  his 
father's  carpenter's  shop,  "  which  he  soon  learned  to  han- 
dle with  considerable  expertness."  Mr.  Smiles,  in  his 
biography  of  Watt,  says,  "  The  mechanical  dexterity  he 
acquired  was  the  foundation  upon  which  he  built  the 
speculations  to  which  he  owes  his  glory,  nor  without  this 
manual  training  is  there  the  least  likelihood  that  he  would 
have  become  the  improver  and  almost  the  creator  of  the 
steam-engine."*  In  the  parrot-power  of  learning  or  mem- 


*  "  I  believe  that  well-advised  practice  in  any  of  the  constructive 
arts  involving  not  more  than  one-third  of  the  student's  time  will  yield 
as  much  mental  improvement  as  will  result  if  the  whole  time  be  de- 
voted to  study  from  text-books." — Prof.  "Wm.  F.  M.  Goss,  six  years 


120  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

orizing  "Watt  was  a  dull  boy,  and  he  left  the  grammar- 
school  of  his  native  town  at  an  early  age,  never  to  return 
to  the  "  halls  of  learning."  But  while  engaged  in  humble 
mechanical  employments  he  perfected  his  education,  study- 
ing after  work-hours.  He  nearly  starved  his  body,  but  con- 
stantly added  to  his  intellectual  stores.  He  ^mastered  the 
principles  of  engineering,  civil  and  military,  studied  natu- 
ral history,  criticism,  art,  and  acquired  several  modern  lan- 
guages. In  a  word,  without  the  aid  of  the  schools,  but 
under  the  stimulating  influence  of  mechanical  investiga- 
tion and  work,  Watt  became  an  accomplished  and  scien- 
tific man.  When  nearly  eighty  years  of  age  he  and  Sir 
Walter  Scott  met.  Referring  to  the  occasion,  and  speak- 
ing of  Watt,  Sir  Walter  is  reported  to  have  said,  "  The 
alert,  kind,  benevolent  old  man  had  his  attention  alive  to 
every  one's  question,  his  information  at  every  one's  com- 
mand. His  talents  and  fancy  overflowed  on  every  subject. 
One  gentleman  was  a  deep  philologist — he  talked  with 
him  on  the  origin  of  the  alphabet  as  if  he  had  been 
coeval  with  Cadmus ;  another  a  celebrated  critic — you 
would  have  said  the  old  man  had  studied  political  econ- 
omy and  belles-lettres  all  his  life ;  of  science  it  is  un- 
necessary to  speak — it  was  his  distinguished  walk." 
These  examples  of  remarkable  intellectual  development 

Director  of  the  Department  of  Practical  Mechanics  of  Purdue  Uni- 
versity. 

' '  And  reflect  that  he  will  learn  more  by  one  hour  of  manual  labor 
than  he  will  retain  from  a  whole  day's  verbal  instructions." — "  The 
Emilius  and  Sophia"  of  J.  J.  Rousseau,  Vol.  II.,  p.  64.  London: 
1767. 

"The  things  themselves  are  the  best  explanations.  I  can  never 
enough  repeat  it,  that  we  make  words  of  too  much  consequence ; 
with  our  prating  modes  of  education  we  make  nothing  but  praters." 
—Ibid.,  p.  46. 


THE  INTELLECTUAL  EFFECT  OF  MANUAL  TRAINING.    121 

in  connection  with  tool  -  practice  are  not  phenomenal. 
From  the  annals  of  invention  and  discovery  numerous 
instances  might  be  cited  in  support  of  the  proposition 
of  this  chapter,  that  tool-practice  stimulates  intellectual 
growth. 

In  the  Artisan's  School  at  Rotterdam,  Holland,  an  ex- 
perience of  seven  years  has  demonstrated  that  "  boys  who 
are  occupied  one-half  the  day  with  books  in  the  school,     "\" 
and  the  remaining  half  with  tools  in  the  laboratories, 
make  about  as  rapid  intellectual  progress  as  those  of  equal 
ability  who  spend  the  whole  day  in  study  and  recitatio 
The  testimony  of  Dr.  Woodward,  director  of  the  St.  Louis 
(Mo.)  Manual  Training  School, is.  to  the  same.effect.    And/ 
in  one  of  his  reports  he  says,^  Success  in  drawing  or  shop- 
work  has  often  had  the  effect  of  arousing  the  ambition     . 
in  mathematics  and  history,  and  vice  versa.  .  .  .  The  habit 
of  working  from  drawings  and  to  nice  measurements  hasv^ 
given  the  students  a  confidence  in  themselves  altogether 
new.     This  is  shown  in  the  readiness  with  which  they  ^ 
undertake  the  execution  of  small  commissions  in  behalf 
of  the  school.  ...  In  fact,  the  increased  usefulness  of  our 
students  is  making  itself  felt,  and  in  several  instances  the 
result  has  been  the  offer  of  business  positions  too  tempt- 
ing to  be  rejected.*  ^ 
~~T5ftlie  results  achieved  by  the  Imperial   Technical 
School,  Moscow,  Russia,  M.Victor  Delia -Vos,  director, 
speaks  with  the  utmost  confidence.    He  says,  "  And  now 
(18T8)  we  present  our  system   of  instruction,  not  as  a 
project,  but  as  an  accomplished  fact,  confirmed  by  the 
long  experience  of  ten  years  of  success  in  its  results." 
The  methods  of  instruction  of  the  school  at  Moscow 
were  introduced  into  all  the  technical  schools  of  Russia 
in  1870. 


122  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

A  similar  degree  of  success  has  attended  the  Royal 
Mechanic  Art  School  at  Komotau,  Bohemia.  The  man- 
agement says, "  The  school  has  shown  the  most  brilliant 
proofs  of  usefulness,  and  the  ends  gained  have  been  ac- 
knowledged at  home  and  abroad.  One  proof  is  that  in 
spite  of  the  hard  times  all  the  pupils  from  Komotau 
have  found  occupation  in  different  manufacturing  estab- 
lishments; and  another  that  England,  a  country  unsur- 
passed in  the  manufactures  of  iron  and  steel,  has  already 
sent  some  students  to  the  school." 

If  the  pupil  in  the  Manual  Training  School  makes  as 
rapid  progress  intellectually  as  the  pupil  in  the  public  or 
private  school  of  corresponding  grade,  it  follows  that 
whatever  skill  in  the  use  of  tools  is  acquired,  and  what- 
ever knowledge  of  practical  mechanics  is  gained,  these 
stand  for  the  net  gain  of  the  pupil  of  the  new  sys- 
tem of  education.  But  much  more  follows  by  implica- 
tion. For  if  the  few  pupils  of  the  world's  few  manual 
training  schools  are  making  equal  intellectual  progress 
with  the  many  pupils  of  the  many  schools  of  the  old  re- 
gime, and  making  such  progress  in  a  little  more  than  half 
the  study-hours,  the  consideration  of  overwhelming  im- 
port is  the  loss  sustained  by  the  millions  of  pupils  being 
trained  under  the  old  system. 


THE   EDUCATION  OF   WOMEN  A  PRIME  NECESSITY.     123 


CHAPTER  XII. 
THE  EDUCATION  OF  WOMEN  A  PRIME  NECESSITY. 

The  Difference  between  Ancient  and  Modern  Systems  of  Education. 
— Plato  Blinded  by  Half-truths. — No  place  in  the  present  order  of 
things  for  Dogmatisms. — Education  commences  at  Birth. — The  In- 
fluence of  Woman  extends  from  the  Cradle  to  the  Grave. — The 
Crime  of  Crimes— Neglect  to  educate  Woman. — The  Superiority 
of  Women  over  Men  as  Teachers — Froebel  discovered  it. — Nature 
designed  Woman  to  Teach  ;  hence  the  Importance  of  Fitting  her 
for  her  Highest  Destiny. 

THIS,  from  the  lips  of  Plato,  was  the  theory  of  the 
ancients :  "  The  earth  is  the  common  mother  of  the  hu- 
man race,  but  it  has  pleased  the  gods  to  mix  gold  in  the 
composition  of  some,  silver  in  that  of  others,  iron  and 
copper  in  that  of  others."*  On  this  divinely  established 
principle  of  caste  all  the  ancient  educational  systems  were 
founded.  They  were  limited  to  the  development  of  the 
few  in  whose  composition  gold  was  supposed  to  be  mixed. 

The  idea  of  a  universal  education  is  modern,  and  all 
other  differences  between  the  ancients  and  moderns  com- 
bined are  as  nothing  to  this  one  fundamental  difference 
between  the  two  civilizations.  Plato's  ideal  republic  was 
based  upon  the  assumption  that  the  "  guardians  "  might 
be  made  just  and  wise  by  educating  them  ;  but  that  the 
other  classes  might  also  be  made  just  and  wise  by  educa- 

*  "The  Republic  of  Plato,"  p.  114.  London:  Macmillan  &  Co., 
1881. 

a 


124  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

tion,  and  the  State  be  so  rendered  absolutely  secure,  did 
not  occur  to  the  great  philosopher. 

Plato  was  blinded  by  half-truths,  as  Rousseau  was  two 
thousand  years  later,  when  he  said,  "  The  poor  stand  in 
no  need  of  education ;  that  of  their  station  is  confined, 
and  they  cannot  obtain  any  other."*  That  men  are  cre- 
ated unequal  intellectually  is  only  a  half-truth  in  an  edu- 
cational view ;  the  whole  truth  is  that  every  child  is  sus- 
ceptible of  the  developing  influence  of  education,  and 
hence  the  obligation  of  the  State  to  educate  relates  to  all 
children.  Plato's  simile  of  the  gold,  the  silver,  and  the 
iron  shows  how  autocratically  even  the  greatest  mind  is 
controlled  by  its  environment,  and  limited  by  the  facts 
which  constitute  the  basis  of  its  generalizations.  Were 
Plato  teaching  here,  now,  he  would  transpose  the  order  of 
statement  in  his  simile,  since  iron,  not  gold,  is  the  king 
of  metals.  Each  generation  increases  the  world's  stock 
of  facts ;  hence  there  is  no  place  in  the  modern  order  of 
things  for  the  dogmatist — the  dogmatisms  of  yesterday 
become  apt  themes  for  the  satires  of  to-day,  subjecting 
their  authors  to  ridicule.  This  fact  should  impress  upon 
professional  teachers,  and  upon  all  persons  engaged  in 
seeking  to  promote  the  cause  of  education,  the  import- 
ance of  a  reverently  studious  habit  of  mind  touching  the 
progress  of  events.  The  tyranny  of  tradition  is  an  ever- 
present,  potent  influence,  and  only  the  growing  mind  can 
resist  it. 

But  there  are  certain  principles  upon  which  not  only 
ancient  and  modern  educators  agree,  but  about  which 
there  is  no  dispute  between  existing  rival  schools,  as,  for 
example,  this  proposition  of  Plato — 

*  "Emilius  and  Sophia,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  40.     London:  1767. 


TUE   EDUCATION  OF   WOMEN  A  PKIME  NECESSITY.     135 

"  The  beginning  is  the  most  important  part,  especially 
in  dealing  with  anything  young  and  tender,  for  that  is 
the  time  when  any  impression  which  one  may  desire  to 
communicate  is  most  readily  stamped  and  taken."* 

And  this  proposition  of  Rousseau — 

"  The  education  of  a  man  commences  at  his  birth ;  be- 
fore he  can  speak,  before  he  can  understand,  he  is  already 
instructed.  .  .  .  Trace  the  progress  of  the  most  ignorant  of 
mortals  from  his  birth  to  the  present  hour  and  you  will 
be  astonished  at  the  knowledge  he  has  acquired."f 

And  this  further  proposition,  also  of  Rousseau — 

"  The  common  profession  of  all  men  is  humanity ;  and 
whoever  is  well  educated  to  discharge  the  duties  of  a 
man  cannot  be  badly  prepared  to  fill  up  any  of  those 
offices  that  have  a  relation  to  him.":}: 

The  truth  of  these  propositions  being  admitted,  some 
conception  may  be  formed  of  the  tremendous  influence 
exerted  by  woman  upon  the  destinies  of  the  human  race. 
It  extends  literally  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave.  All 
other  influences  combined  are  less  potent,  less  compre- 
hensive than  this  single,  persistent  force  that  creates  the 
very  atmosphere  in  which  the  infant  mind  develops, 
holding  the  ground  alone  and  undisturbed  until  the 
child's  plastic  character  has  been  formed,  receiving  in- 
eradicable impressions.  What  a  crime,  then,  was  the  neg- 
lect of  the  people  of  past  ages  to  educate  woman !  It 
is  in  vain  that  the  education  of  man  is  attempted  if  that 
of  woman  is  neglected.  It  was  Rousseau  who  in  despair 
exclaimed : 

*  "The  Republic  of  Plato,"  p.  65.  London:  Macmillan  &  Co., 
1881. 

t  "  Emilius  and  Sophia,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  54.     London  :  1767. 
$  Ibid.,  Vol.  I,  p.  13. 


126  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

"How  can  a  child  be  properly  educated  by  one  who 
has  not  been  properly  educated  himself  ?" 

Since,  therefore,  the  education  of  the  man  begins  while 
he  lies  helpless  in  his  mother's  arms,  and  since  the  first 
steps  in  this  direction  are  the  most  important,  and  since 
some  sort  of  education  proceeds  with  almost  inconceiv- 
able rapidity  through  all  the  early  years  of  life,  it  fol- 
lows that  the  kindergarten  fills  a  place  in  the  educational 
field  entirely  unoccupied  until  the  time  of  Froebel.  He 
first  applied  the  ideas  of  Rousseau  to  school  life.  But 
when  the  kindergarten  receives  the  child,  three  or  four  of 
the  most  precious  educational  years  have  already  passed 
away,  and  at  the  still  tender  age  of  seven  the  child  is 
surrendered  to  a  very  different  system  of  training.  The 
kindergarten  is  therefore  only  a  brief  episode  in  the  edu- 
cational period  of  the  child's  life.  But  if  it  be  the  true 
education,  it  is  susceptible  of  universal  application. 
Throughout  all  nature  the  order  of  development  is  con- 
stant and  harmonious,  and  the  child -nature  cannot  in 
reason  constitute  an  exception  to  this  rule.  Froebel  said, 
"  The  end  and  aim  of  all  our  work  should  be  the  har- 
monious growth  of  the  whole  being."  If  his  principle  is 
the  true  one,  his  method  is  susceptible  of  such  modifica- 
tion and  expansion  as  to  render  it  applicable  to  the  whole 
educational  period.  All  mothers  should  therefore  be 
trained  in  the  principles  and  methods  of  the  new  edu- 
cation—  the  kindergarten  system  should  prevail  in  all 
schools,  and  the  kindergarten  curriculum  should  be  ex- 
tended and  adapted  to  all  ages  and  grades  of  pupils. 

Several  great  minds,  separated  by  considerable  inter- 
vals of  time,  have  united  in  condemning  the  old  systems 
of  education  —  Bacon,  Comenius,  Rousseau,  Pestalozzi, 
and  Froebel.  Bacon,  himself  a  university  man,  said, 


THE   EDUCATION   OF  WOMEN  A  PRIME   NECESSITY.     127 

"  They  learn  nothing  at  the  universities  but  to  believe ;" 
and  he  proposed  that  a  college  be  appropriated  to  the 
discovery  of  new  truth,  "  to  mix  like  a  living  spring  with 
the  stagnant  waters."  Three  of  these  great  men — Co- 
menius,  Pestalozzi,  and  Froebel — were  professional  teach- 
ers. Theoretically  they  were  in  accord  with  and  follow- 
ers of  Bacon,  and  in  practice  they  were  substantially 
agreed.  Comenins  said,  "  Let  things  that  have  to  be  done 
be  learned  by  doing  them."  Pestalozzi  said,  "  Education 
is  the  generation  of  power,"  and  Froebel  said,  "  The  end 
and  aim  of  all  our  work  should  be  the  harmonious  growth 
of  the  whole  being." 

These  are  very  high  authorities,  and  they  are  buttressed 
by  seemingly  impregnable  educational  propositions.  The 
record  of  Froebel's  life  is  worthy  of  great  weight  in  sup- 
port of  his  theory.  His  devotion  to  the  cause  of  educa- 
tion was  absolute.  He  never  knew  a  selfish  aim.  He 
struggled  for  the  race,  not  for  self.  He  was  the  victim 
of  many  misfortunes,  but  none  disturbed  the  serenity  of 
this  great  soul  devoted  to  the  greatest  of  great  causes — 
the  cause  of  education.  And  education  to  his  apprehen- 
sion was  the  thorough  training  of  every  faculty  of  the 
mind  and  every  power  of  the  body  for  the  duties  of  act- 
ual practical  life.  His  love  embraced  the  world  in  its 
entirety  and  in  all  its  parts.  Dying,  he  said,  "  I  love 
flowers,  men,  children,  God !  I  love  everything !"  It 
was  his  profoundly  philosophic  conception  of  the  innate 
lovableness  of  every  natural  object  that  made  him  shud- 
der at  the  cruel  distortion  wrought  in  the  natures  of 
little  children  by  false  methods  of  education.  Hence 
his  intense  devotion  to  the  subject  of  infant  training,  and 
hence  the  excellence  of  the  system  which  bears  his  name. 

Froebel's  most  subtile  discovery  was  the  fact  of.  the 


128  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

superiority  of  women  over  men,  as  teachers.  Only  an 
honest,  brave  soul  could  have  made  this  discovery,  for 
tradition  stood  like  a  lion  in  the  way,  and  prejudice  dis- 
couraged investigation.  But  Froebel  sought  truth  for 
truth's  sake,  fearlessly  defying  tradition  and  ignoring 
prejudice,  and  years  of  experiment  convinced  him  that 
the  greatest  measure  of  success  in  infant  training  was 
surely  attainable  through  women.  That  this  discovery, 
so  simple,  yet  so  big  with  grand  possibilities,  was  not  made 
earlier  is  due  to  the  fact  that  there  is  so  little  really 
independent  thought,  so  little  investigation  free  from 
the  trammels  of  prejudice.  Now  that  a  great  mind  has 
pointed  the  way  it  is  obvious  that  Nature,  having  design- 
ed that  the  years  of  early  childhood  should  be  spent 
with  the  mother,  must  have  also  designed  that  women 
should  be  the  chief  educators  of  children.  And  it  fol- 
lows, of  course,  that  the  education  of  women  is  more 
important  than  that  of  men,  since  it  is  from  them  that 
children  receive  their  first  impressions,  and  since  first 
impressions  are  indelibly  stamped  upon  the  infant  mind, 
giving  it  form,  color,  and  substance. 

In  confiding  to  women  this  great  trust,  Froebel  imposed 
upon  them  an  incalculable  weight  of  responsibility.  It 
comprehends  the  destiny  of  the  human  race,  involving 
the  problem  of  its  progress  or  retrogression. 

A  common  first  conception  of  the  kindergarten  is — 
a  convenient  asylum  for  the  children  of  mothers  who 
desire  to  be  relieved  of  their  care.  A  more  thoughtful 
study  reveals  its  poetry  and  sentiment,  the  innocent  joy 
of  the  assembly  of  pupils,  the  harmony  of  song,  and  the 
grace  of  motion  in  the  games  and  dances.  A  final,  large 
view  discloses  the  true  educational  principle.  The  kin- 
•  dergarten  is  more  clearly  comprehended  after  studying 


THE   EDUCATION  OF  WOMEN  A  PRIME  NECESSITY.     139 

the  manual  training  school — moving  from  the  effect  to 
the  cause ;  for  as  the  child  is  father  of  the  man,  so  the 
kindergarten  is  father  of  the  manual  training  school. 
The  kindergarten  comes  first  in  the  order  of  develop- 
ment, and  leads  logically  to  the  manual  training  school. 
The  same  principle  underlies  both.  In  both  it  is  sought 
to  generate  power  by  dealing  with  actualities.  The 
corner-stone  of  both  is  object-teaching — teaching  through 
things  instead  of  through  signs  of  things.  This  princi- 
ple, common  to  both,  is  the  concrete  as  opposed  to  the 
abstract.  The  theory  of  both  is  that,  in  teaching,  ideas 
should  never  be  isolated  from  the  objects  they  represent. 
The  kindergarten  and  the  manual  training  school,  being 
one  in  principle,  should  have  common  methods  of  in- 
struction, varied  sufficiently  to  adapt  them  to  the  whole 
range  of  school  life. 


130  MANUAL  TRAINING. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 
THE  MORAL  EFFECT  OF  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

Mental  Impulses  are  often  Vicious  ;  but  the  Exertion  of  Physical 
Power  in  the  Arts  is  always  Beneficent  —  hence  Manual  Training 
tends  to  correct  vicious  mental  Impulses.  —Every  mental  Impres- 
sion produces  a  moral  Effect. — All  Training  is  Moral  as  well  as 
Mental. — Selfishness  is  total  Depravity;  but  Selfishness  has  been 
Deified  under  the  name  of  Prudence. — Napoleon  an  Example  of 
Selfishness. —  The  End  of  Selfishness  is  Disaster;  but  Prevailing 
Systems  of  Education  promote  Selfishness. — The  Modern  City  an 
Illustration  of  Selfishness. — The  Ancient  City. — Existing  Systems 
of  Education  Negatively  Wrong. — Manual  Training  supplies  the 
lacking  Element.  —  The  Objective  must  take  the  Place  of  the  Sub- 
jective in  Education.  —  Words  without  Acts  are  as  dead  as  Faith 
without  Works. 

EDUCATION,  or  training,  has  two  immediate  and  contin- 
uous effects — the  development  of  innate  mental  qualities 
or  aptitudes  and  the  formation  of  character.  In  an  or- 
derly logical  system  of  training  the  development  would 
be  harmonious,  and  the  resulting  formation  of  character 
symmetrical.  These  are,  however,  ideal  conditions  re- 
quiring a  perfect  system  of  training,  and  students  free 
from  the  perversions  and  deformities  growing  out  of 
the  law  of  heredity.  But  under  any  system  of  training 
there  is  progress — development  and  character  formation. 
The  aphorism,  "An  idle  brain  is  the  devil's  workshop," 
expresses  only  a  half-truth.  What  it  means  is  this :  if 
the  brain  is  not  well  employed  it  will  be  ill  employed ;  or 
if  it  is  not  occupied  with  good  thoughts  it  will  be  occu- 
pied with  evil  thoughts.  The  mind  of  man  is  never  at 


THE   MOKAL  EFFECT  OF   MANUAL  TRAINING.         131 

rest,  in  equilibrium,  even  in  a  state  of  barbarism.  Indeed 
this  is  obvious,  since  all  civilizations  are  growths  sprung 
from  states  of  savagery.  But  the  barbaric  line  once  pass- 
ed, development  is  greatly  accelerated,  assuming  with  the 
evolution  of  the  ages  the  form  of  a  geometrical  progres- 
sion. The  distinguishing  characteristic  of  modern  civiliza- 
tion is  action.  In  so  far  as  this  action,  which  may  be  called 
the  impulsive  force  of  the  spirit  of  the  age,  is  natural  and 
orderly,  it  constitutes  an  aid  to  the  processes  of  educa- 
tion ;  if  otherwise,  it  is  obstructive,  hindering  them. 

The  law  of  mental  development  is  not  the  exact  cor- 
relative of  the  law  of  physical  development.  The  direct 
aim  of  physical  training  is  muscular  power;  of  mental 
training  the  aim  is  mental  power  and  rectitude.  Physi- 
cal power  is  not  intrinsically  vicious ;  it  becomes  vicious 
only  when  exerted  under  a  vicious  intellectual  impulse. 
But  this  is  not  necessarily  true  of  mental  power;  for 
mental  power  may  be  gained  quite  apart  from  the  ele- 
ment of  rectitude,  in  which  event  it  is  vicious,  and  may 
be  exerted  in  scorn  of  the  accepted  standards  of  right, 
truth,  and  justice.  "As  a  matter  of  fact  it  is  often  so  ex- 
erted, and  the  fact  that  it  is  so  exerted  accounts  for  the 
crimes  of  individuals,  the  faults  of  society,  and  the  errors 
of  governments.  The  constitution  of  mental  power  is, 
then,  complex,  while  that  of  physical  power  is  simple.  If 
mental  power  consists  of  sense  perception  or  understand- 
ing and  moral  perception  or  rectitude  in  due  proportion, 
the  issue  is  a  noble  character ;  but  if  rectitude  is  wanting, 
the  issue  is  an  evil  character.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  there 
is  no  interference  with  the  orderly  development  of  phys- 
ical power,  the  issue  of  its  exertion  is  always  skill — skill 
applied  in  innumerable  forms  to  the  uses  of  man.  Only 
through  a  mental  impulse  rendered  vicious  by  the  ab- 

6* 


133  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

sence  of  the  element  of  rectitude  can  physical  power  bo 
diverted  from  its  naturally  beneficent  mission. 

It  follows  that  most  of  the  evils  of  civilization  flow 
from  an  ill-balanced  mental  constitution — a  mental  consti- 
tution wanting  the  essential  element  of  rectitude.  Since, 
then,  mental  development,  under  certain  widely  prevail- 
ing conditions,  is  so  prolific  of  evil,  and  physical  devel- 
opment or  skill  so  universally  prolific  of  good,  it  is  ob- 
vious that  the  beneficent  influence  of  the  latter  should, 
if  practicable,  be  brought  to  bear  upon  the  former  in  ed- 
ucational systems.  In  a  word,  may  not  the  two  systems 
of  training  be  so  connected  in  the  schools  as  to  cause 
the  manual  to  react  upon  the  mental,  with  the  effect  of 
greatly  strengthening  the  ethical  side  of  the  mind  ? 

It  is  not  essential  to  our  purpose  to  inquire  whether  a 
perfect  system  of  education,  and  hence  an  ideal  state  of 
society,  is  possible.  It  will  be  sufficient  if  we  are  able  to 
show  wherein  pervailing  systems  of  education  can  be  im- 
proved. 

In  a  former  chapter  we  sought  to  show  that  the  use  of 
mechanical  tools  stimulates  the  intellect ;  in  the  present 
chapter  it  is  our  purpose  to  endeavor  to  show  that  man- 
ual training  tends  to  the  promotion  of  rectitude,  to  the 
up-building  of  character. 

For  purposes  of  culture  the  mind  consists  of  divisions, 
as  the  body  consists  of  members.  It  is  susceptible  of 
development  in  the  line  of  the  application  of  mental 
training,  as  any  member  of  the  body  is  susceptible  of  de- 
velopment through  physical  training  or  use.  For  exam- 
ple, the  memory  may  be  invigorated  by  the  constant  ap- 
plication of  certain  kinds  of  mental  training,  as  the  arm 
is  strengthened  by  the  constant  use  of  the  sledge-hammer. 
But  if  the  mental  training  which  stimulates  the  memory 


THE   MORAL   EFFECT   OF   MANUAL  TRAINING.         133 

is  applied  to  the  neglect  of  other  lines  of  training,  the 
memory  will  be  invigorated  at  the  expense  of  some  other 
faculty  of  the  mind,  as  the  excessive  use  of  the  sledge- 
hammer strengthens  the  arm  at  the  cost  of  other  members 
of  the  body.  In  the  one  case  the  mind,  and  in  the  other 
the  body  will  be  deformed.  In  the  case  of  the  sledge- 
hammer training  the  muscles  of  the  arm  will  stand  out 
like  whip-cords,  while  those  of  the  legs  will  shrivel  and 
become  attenuated.  In  the  case  of  the  training  of  the 
memory  that  faculty  will  show  an  abnormal  develop- 
ment, while  some  other  faculty,  as  the  power  of  ratioci- 
nation, probably,  will  become  weak. 

It  is  not  necessary  in  this  connection  to  inquire  into 
the  origin  of  moral  sentiments,  or  to  consider  the  rival 
theories  on  the  subject.  However  men  may  differ  as 
between  the  two  schools  of  moral  philosophers  —  the 
sentimentalists  and  the  utilitarians — they  will  agree  that 
the  moral  side  of  the  mind,  so  to  speak,  consists  of  divi- 
sions like  the  mental  side ;  that  these  divisions  are  the 
source,  respectively,  of  good  and  evil  tendencies,  and  that 
these  tendencies  are  susceptible  of  cultivation;  that  the 
evil  may  be  restrained  and  the  good  developed,  and  vice 
versa.  Nor  will  it  be  disputed  that  there  is  such  a 
blending  of  the  moral  with  the  mental  nature  in  the 
mind  of  man  as  to  render  any  consideration  of  the  sub- 
ject irrational  and  incomplete  which  does  not  compre- 
hend both,  and  treat  them,  practically,  as  one  and  the 
same.  Man  is  so  constituted,  and  his  relations  to  society 
are  such,  that  every  mental  impression  he  receives  pro- 
duces a  moral  effect,  the  character  of  which  is,  of  course, 
largely  dependent  upon  the  accepted  standards  of  right, 
truth,  and  justice.  Hence  all  scholastic  training  is  both 
mental  and  moral.  It  is  moral  as  well  as  mental,  whether 


134  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

the  instructor  will  it  so  or  not ;  and  that  it  is  moral  is 
well,  since  it  is  obviously  true,  as  Galton  pertinently  re- 
marks, that  "  Great  men  have  usually  high  moral  nat- 
ures, and  are  affectionate  and  reverential,  inasmuch  as 
mere  brain  without  heart  is  insufficient  to  achieve  emi- 
nence." 

Selfishness  is  the  arch  enemy  of  virtue;  from  it  all 
forms  of  immorality  spring,  and  its  last  analysis  is  total 
depravity.  But  literature,  which  is  the  fruitage  of  edu- 
cation, is  full  of  maxims  in  honor  of  selfishness.  Said  the 
Dauphin  to  the  French  king,  "  Self-love,  my  liege,  is  not 
so  vile  a  sin  as  self-neglecting."  Said  Herbert, "  Help 
thyself  and  God  will  help  thee."  "  A  penny  saved  is  as 
good  as  a  penny  earned,"  said  Franklin ;  and  the  grasp- 
ing "Yankee"  stretches  the  maxim  a  point  in  saying  to 
his  son,  "Make  money  honestly  if  you  can,  but  make 
money." 

The  following,  also,  are  current  maxims :  "  Every  man 
is  the  architect  of  his  own  fortune ;"  "  Every  tub  must 
stand  upon  its  own  bottom ;"  "  In  the  race  of  life  the 
devil  takes  the  hindmost ;"  "  Look  to  the  main  chance ;" 
and,  "  Keep  what  you  have  got,  and  catch  what  you  can." 
To  the  same  purpose  is  the  famous  old  aphorism  of  which 
Napoleon  the  First  was  so  fond,  "  God  always  favors  the 
heaviest  battalions."  Emerson  declared  that  Napoleon 
represented  "  the  spirit  of  modern  commerce,  of  money, 
and  material  power,"  and  he  certainly  was  the  very  in- 
carnation of  selfishness.*  He  had  a  hand  of  iron,  and  he 

*  "  '  God  has  granted,'  says  the  Koran,  '  to  every  people  a  prophet 
in  its  own  tongue.'  Paris,  and  London,  and  New  York,  the  spirit  of 
commerce,  of  money,  and  material  power,  were  also  to  have  their 
prophet ;  and  Bonaparte  was  qualified  and  sent.  Every  one  of  the 
million  readers  of  anecdotes,  or  memoirs,  or  lives  of  Napoleon  de- 


THE   MORAL   EFFECT  OF   MANUAL  TRAINING.         135 

laid  it  heavily  on  all  who  opposed  him.  If  it  became 
necessary  to  imprison  his  enemies  he  imprisoned  them ; 
if  it  became  necessary  to  kill  them  he  cut  off  their  heads. 
When  charged  with  the  commission  of  great  crimes,  he 
retorted,  "Men  of  my  stamp  do  not  commit  crimes!" 
"  I  have  always  marched  with  the  opinion  of  great  masses 
and  events,"  he  exclaimed,  with  the  insolence  of  a  butcher 
exhibiting  his  bloody  hands.  Old-fashioned  codes  of 
morals  were  for  those  who  opposed  his  plans,  not  for 
him.  But  the  end  of  selfishness  is  disaster.  It  is  as 
dangerous  to  assume  to  rise  above  moral  laws  as  to  sink 
below  them  ;  in  the  one  case  they  crush,  and  in  the  other 
they  undermine.  "The  half"  is,  after  all,  "more  than 
the  whole,"  for  "the  half"  may  be  retained,  but  "the 
whole  "  is  sure  to  slip  from  the  fingers  of  grasping  ava- 
rice. Napoleon,  who  defied  both  God  and  man,  expiated 
his  crimes  on  a  rock  in  mid-ocean.  There,  whining,  pro- 
testing, and  prating  of  injustice,  he  died  miserably,  a 
colossal  example  of  the  folly  of  selfishness. 

Selfishness  seeks  to  wring  from  society  a  support  with- 
out giving  to  it  an  equivalent  return.  What  industry 
creates  and  saves  to  society,  selfishness  seeks  to  misap- 
propriate to  its  own  use ;  hence  selfishness  is  in  conflict 
with  the  true  spirit  of  civilization,  which  is  the  compact 
of  all  to  protect  each  in  his  rights.  Selfishness  caused 
the  destruction  of  all  the  governments  of  ancient  times, 
and  it  has  been  the  cause  of  all  the  revolutions  of  modern 
times.  There  can  be  no  stability  in  government  until 
altruism  takes  the  place  of  selfishness  in  the  world's  code 

lights  in  the  page,  because  he  studies  in  it  his  own  history." — "Rep- 
resentative Men, "p.  221.  Boston:  Phillips,  Sampson  &  Co.,  1858. 

It  would  be  impossible  more  severely  to  arraign  existing  educa- 
tional methods;  for  men  are  what  education  makes  them. 


136  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

of  ethics.  The  sole  condition  of  the  stability  of  the  State 
is  a  disposition  on  the  part  of  its  people  to  conform  to 
justice  and  correct  moral  principles  in  all  social  trans- 
actions. 

Any  system  of  education  that  does  not  tend  to  produce 
a  state  of  morals  conformable  to  this  high  standard  is  not 
merely  defective ;  it  is  radically  wrong,  and  therefore 
positively  vicious.  The  true  purpose  of  education  is  the 
harmonious  development  of  all  the  powers  of  the  man — 
mental,  moral,  and  physical.  But  harmony  in  a  selfish 
character  is  impossible,  for  selfishness  is  blind  of  one 
eye,  so  to  speak ;  it  considers  only  one  side  of  a  cause — 
the  side  that  relates  to  its  interest,  regardless  of  all  other 
interests.  Let  not  prudence  be  confounded  with  selfish- 
ness. Prudence  and  selfishness  are  as  wide  apart  as  the 
poles.  Extreme  prudence  is  perfectly  consistent  with 
entire  rectitude,  while  extreme  selfishness  is  the  syno- 
nym of  depravity ;  hence  the  first  step  in  education  is  to 
eliminate  selfishness  from  the  mind,  and  the  next  step  is 
to  put  rectitude  in  its  place. 

Prevailing  systems  of  education  no  doubt  promote  the 
spirit  of  selfishness  :*  witness  the  character  of  the  struggle 
for  self-aggrandizement.  It  is  more  intense  and  more 
widely  extended  than  at  any  period  of  the  world's  his- 

*  "In  small,  undeveloped  societies,  where  for  ages  complete  peace 
has  continued,  there  exists  nothing  like  what  we  call  Government ; 
no  coercive  agency,  but  mere  honorary  headship,  if  any  headship  at 
all.  In  these  exceptional  communities,  unaggressive,  and  from  special 
causes  unaggressed  upon,  there  is  so  little  deviation  from  the  virtues 
of  truthfulness,  honesty,  justice,  and  generosity,  that  nothing  beyond 
an  occasional  expression  of  public  opinion  by  informally  assembled 
elders  is  needful."— "Political  Institutions,"  H  487,  573  ;  "The  Sins 
of  Legislators,"  in  "The  Man  versus  the  State,"  p.  44.  By  Herbert 
Spencer.  New  York  :  D.  Appleton  &  Co. 


THE   MORAL   EFFECT  OF   MANUAL  TRAINING.         137 

tory.  That  it  is  more  intense  is  shown  by  the  more  and 
more  rapid  concentration  of  populations  in  cities,  where 
the  struggle  assumes  its  most  intense  form,  and  exhibits 
itself  in  its  most  threatening  aspect. 

Cities  have  always  been  plague-spots  on  the  body  pol- 
itic, and  they  are  not  less  so  now  than  in  ancient  times. 
It  is  in  cities  that  all  dangers  to  the  State  originate ; 
and  the  sole,  fundamental  reason  why  cities  are  a  stand- 
ing menace  to  the  integrity  of  the  social  compact  is  the 
fact  that  they  are  dominated  by  selfishness.  It  is  in 
cities  that  the  unnatural,  unwholesome  desire  to  live 
without  labor,  to  live  by  speculative  enterprises,  becomes 
a  consuming  passion,  inoculating  with  a  deeper  and  dark- 
er degree  of  selfishness  an  ever-widening  circle  of  people ; 
and  selfishness  at  last  inevitably  leads  to  anarchy.  It 
leads  to  anarchy  and  chaos  because  both  classes  of  society 
become  depraved — the  rich  and  powerful  through  indo- 
lence and  sensual  indulgence,  and  the  poor  and  wretched 
through  ignorance  and  privation  and  their  attendant 
mean  vices. 

The  modern  city  is  the  despair  of  the  modern  political 
economist.  It  grows  relatively  faster  in  population  than 
the  rural  district,  and  it  would  be  the  extreme  of  opti- 
mism to  declare  that  it  grows  better.  It  does  not  matter 
that  the  city  is  the  centre  of  learning,  the  nursery  of  all 
the  active  intelligences  which  are  achieving  fresh  tri- 
umphs daily  in  every  department  of  science,  literature, 
and  art.  It  is  also  the  centre  of  vice,  and  the  nursery 
of  every  variety  of  crime. 

The  difficulty — nay,  the  despair — of  the  situation  is 
not  relieved  or  mitigated  by  the  undisputed  fact  that  the 
ancient  city  was  much  worse  morally  and  politically  than 
the  modern  city,  and  hence  that  as  between  Rome  and 


138  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

Chicago  there  is  an  immense  moral  and  political  advan- 
tage in  favor  of  the  latter.  If  Chicago  is  retrograding 
morally  and  politically,  what  is  to  prevent  it  from  sinking 
to  the  moral  and  political  status  of  Rome  under  the  in- 
famous emperors  of  the  period  of  its  decadence  ?  If  the 
modern  American  city  is  rapidly  degenerating,  both  as  a 
moral  force  and  a  political  institution,  what  is  to  arrest 
its  downward  progress  ?  "What  influence  is  to  intervene 
to  reverse  the  order  and  nature  of  its  development  ? 

Rome,  in  the  very  agonies  of  political  dissolution,  pos- 
sessed all  the  then  known  arts,  a  splendid  literature,  and 
a  school  of  philosophy  whose  ethical  code  was  more  lofty, 
if  less  human,  than  that  of  the  new  system  which  was 
struggling  to  replace  the  old.  That  the  inconceivably 
atrocious  gladiatorial  games  should  have  developed  into 
such  huge  proportions  in  conjunction  with  the  sublime 
moral  teachings  of  Seneca,  Plutarch,  Marcus  Aurelius, 
and  a  score  of  others,  is  the  despair  of  students  of  Roman 
history.  "While  they  taught,  emperors  and  people  alike 
feasted  their  eyes  on  bloody  orgies  of  men  and  beasts, 
on  scenes  of  the  most  horrible  barbarity.  Caligula  took 
special  delight  in  watching  the  countenances  of  the  dy- 
ing, "  for  he  had  learned  to  take  an  artistic  pleasure  in 
observing  the  variations  of  their  agony."  Criminals 
dressed  in  the  skins  of  wild  beasts  were  thrown  to  bulls 
which  were  maddened  with  red-hot  irons.  "  Four  hundred 
bears  were  killed  in  a  single  day  under  Caligula ;  three 
hundred  on  another  day  under  Claudius.  Under  Nero, 
four  hundred  tigers  fought  with  bulls  and  elephants ;  four 
hundred  bears  and  three  hundred  lions  were  slaughtered 
by  his  soldiers.  In  a  single  day,  at  the  dedication  of  the 
Colosseum  by  Titus,  five  thousand  animals  perished.  Un- 
der Trajan  the  games  continued  for  one  hundred  and 


THE   MORAL   EFFECT  OF  MANUAL  TRAINING.         139 

twenty-three  successive  days.  Lions,  tigers,  rhinoceroses, 
hippopotami,  giraffes,  bulls,  stags,  even  crocodiles  and  ser- 
pents, were  employed  to  give  novelty  to  the  spectacle." 

And  yet  the  civilization  that  produced  these  games 
gave  to  the  world  forever  the  moral  precepts  of  the  stoics 
and  philosophers.  Cicero  had  maintained  the  doctrine 
of  the  universal  brotherhood  of  man.  "Nature  ordains," 
he  says,  "  that  a  man  should  wish  the  good  of  every  man, 
whoever  he  may  be,  for  this  very  reason :  that  he  is  a 
man."  Menauder  maintained  that  "man  should  deem 
nothing  human  foreign  to  his  interest."  Lucan  looked 
forward  to  the  time  when  "the  human  race  will  cast 
aside  its  weapons,  and  all  nations  learn  to  love."  In  a 
letter  on  the  death  of  his  slaves  Pliny  exhibited  feelings 
of  strong  human  affection,  and  Plutarch,  in  a  letter  of 
consolation  to  his  wife  on  the  death  of  his  daughter,  left 
a  touching  record  of  the  tenderness  of  his  heart  in  the 
recital  of  a  simple  trait  of  the  child:  "She  desired  her 
nurse  to  press  even  her  dolls  to  the  breast.  She  was  so 
loving  that  she  wished  everything  that  gave  her  pleasure 
to  share  in  the  best  that  she  had."  Says  Seneca,  "  The 
whole  universe  which  you  see  around  you,  comprising  all 
things  both  divine  and  human,  is  one.  We  are  members 
of  one  great  body."  And  Epictetus,  "  You  are  a  citizen 
and  a  part  of  the  world.  The  duty  of  a  citizen  is  in 
nothing  to  consider  his  own  interest  distinct  from  that 
of  others." 

The  contrast  presented  by  these  noble  moral  sentiments 
to  the  actual  life  of  the  Roman  people  is  truly  startling. 
It  is  plain  that  the  profession  of  lofty  moral  sentiments 
by  a  class,  the  possession  of  high  literary  attainments, 
and  an  extensive  acquaintance  with  the  arts,  do  not  al- 
ways afford  protection  against  national  degradation  and 


140  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

decay.  Nor  is  it  by  any  means  certain  that  the  Christian 
religion  is  destined  to  effect  more  in  this  regard  than  the 
pagan  code  of  morals.  Rome  embraced  religion,  but  its 
conversion  was  powerless  to  avert  political  and  commer- 
cial destruction. 

The  modern  city  has  for  guides  the  example  of  all  the 
ancient  civilizations  and  political  and  moral  systems,  and 
in  addition  it  has  in  its  most  vital  form  the  Christian 
system  of  morals  and  faith.  But  notwithstanding  all 
these  helps  it  is  politically  corrupt  and  morally  depraved. 
Its  streets  are  the  scenes  of  vice  scarcely  less  revolting 
than  those  of  ancient  Rome.  It  harbors  an  army  of 
criminals  which  grows  with  its  growth,  and  is  without 
any  systematized  effort  either  to  reform  or  abolish  it. 
Indeed  this  army  of  criminals  is  constantly  reinforced  in 
an  increasing  ratio  to  the  whole  population  from  the  ranks 
of  the  rising  generation,  which  is  to  a  degree  enforced  to 
ignorance  by  the  inadequacy  of  educational  facilities.* 
Its  power  to  accumulate  wealth  is  increasing,  but  this 
power  is  confined  to  relatively  fewer  hands,  and  this  is 
one  of  the  most  alarming  features  of  the  situation.  For 
the  increase  of  ignorance,  vice,  and  crime  is  sure  to  keep 
pace  with  the  abnormal  growth  of  estates,  stimulated  to 
the  highest  degree  by  dishonest  business  practices  and 
gigantic  schemes  of  speculation. 

It  does  not  follow  because  prevailing  methods  of  edu- 


*  In  support  of  the  truth  of  these  propositions  it  is  sufficient  merely 
to  allude  to  the  late  disclosures  by  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette  of  the  prev- 
alence of  revolting  crimes  in  London,  England.  It  is  also  pertinent 
to  remark  the  attitude  of  hostility  maintained  by  the  higher  classes 
(so  called)  of  the  English  people  towards  the  editor  of  the  journal  in 
which  the  disclosures  \vere  made,  as  significant  of  an  alarming  de- 
generation of  the  moral  sense  of  the  British  public. 


THE  MORAL  EFFECT  OF   MANUAL  TRAINING.         141 

cation  promote  the  spirit  of  selfishness,  and  hence  contain 
the  seeds  of  social  and  moral  decay,  that  they  are  wholly 
vicious;  but  it  does  follow,  if  they  are  not  positively 
wrong,  that  they  are  negatively  wrong.  Let  us  assume 
that  they  are  only  negatively  wrong,  that  they  lack  an 
essential  element  in  all  mental  and  moral  training — the 
manual  element ;  and  let  us  try  to  discover  what  would 
be  the  effect  of  the  incorporation  of  this  element  into 
the  curriculum  of  the  schools. 

A  system  of  education  consisting  exclusively  of  men- 
tal exercises  promotes  selfishness  because  such  training  is 
subjective.  Its  effects  flow  inward;  they  relate  to  self. 
All  mental  acquirements  become  a  part  of  self,  and  so 
remain  forever,  unless  they  are  transmuted  into  things 
through  the  agency  of  the  hand. 

It  is  through  the  hand  alone  that  the  mind  finally  im- 
presses itself  upon  matter.  In  other  words,  thought  and 
speech  must  be  incarnate  in  things  or  they  are  dead. 
The  orator  appeals  to  the  people  to  strike  for  their 
rights ;  the  people  rend  the  air  with  shouts  and  subside 
into  silence.  The  orator  cries,  "  To  Arms !"  Again  the 
people  shout,  and  again  subside  into  silence.  The  ora- 
tor's thoughts  are  of  carnage,  his  words  of  flames,  but 
they  are  as  dead  as  if  never  conceived  and  uttered  be- 
cause no  hand  is  raised  to  embody  them  in  deeds. 

Manual  training,  on  the  other  hand,  promotes  altruism 
because  it  is  objective.  Its  effects  flow  outward ;  they 
relate  not  to  self  but  to  the  human  race.  The  skilled 
hand  confers  benefits  upon  man,  and  each  benefit  so 
conferred  exerts  the  natural  reflex  moral  influence  of 
a  good  act  upon  the  mind  of  the  benefactor.* 

*  "And  now  I  would  point  out  how  the  occupations  of  the  work- 


142  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

Morality  is  not  a  mere  sentiment,  a  barren  ideality.  It 
is  true  there  is  a  negative  morality  which  consists  in 
refraining  from  the  commission  of  wrongful  acts.  But 
the  morality  of  the  great  ethical  teachers  is  positive ;  it 
consists  in  doing.  Christ  said, "  Inasmuch  as  ye  have 
done  it  unto  one  of  the  least  of  these  my  brethren,  ye 
have  done  it  unto  me."  "Words  without  acts  are  as  dead 
as  faith  without  works.  Paul  said,  "  Though  1  have  all 
faith,  so  that  I  could  remove  mountains,  and  have  not 
charity,  I  am  nothing." 

Morality  is  a  vital  principle  whose  exemplification  con- 
sists in  doing  justice ;  and  justice  is  that  virtue  "  which 
consists  in  giving  to  every  one  what  is  his  due;  practical 
conformity  to  the  laws  and  to  principles  of  rectitude  in 


shop  and  the  atelier  combined  tend  to  establish  in  the  mind  of  the 
pupil  an  unselfish  and  impersonal  standard  of  valuation  which  -will 
prepare  him  admirably  for  the  truer  moral  estimate  of  life.  For  days, 
and  perhaps  for  weeks,  he  labors  to  convert  a  formless  material  into 
a  form  illustrating  mathematical  truth  or  aesthetic  harmony.  He 
undergoes  protracted  toil,  and  meets  perhaps  with  many  failures  and 
disappointments,  in  order  to  be  rewarded  at  last — by  what  ?  Simply 
by  realizing  in  some  degree  that  perfectness  of  the  object  which  he 
aimed  at  from  the  beginning.  His  work  is  devoid  of  any  pecuniary 
value.  It  is  a  mere  typical  form.  Its  worth  consists  in  being  true 
or  in  being  beautiful.  And  a  habit  is  thus  formed  of  judging  things 
in  general  according  to  their  intrinsic  rather  than  their  superficial 
qualities.  Gradually,  and  almost  insensibly,  the  analogy  of  the  work 
performed  on  outward  objects  will  be  applied  to  inward  experience. 
.  .  .  Thus  while  he  is  shaping  the  typical  objects  which  the  instructor 
proposes  to  him  as  a  task,  while  he  pores  silently,  persistently,  and 
lovingly  over  these  objects,  reaching  success  by  dint  of  gradual  ap- 
proximation, he  is,  at  the  same  time,  shaping  his  own  character,  and 
a  tendency  of  mind  is  created  from  which  will  eventually  result  the 
loftiest  and  purest  morality." — Prof.  Felix  Adler,  Princeton  Review, 
March,  1882. 


THE   MORAL  EFFECT  OF  MANUAL  TRAINING.         143 

the  dealings  of  men  with  each  other ;  honesty,  integrity 
in  commerce  or  mutual  intercourse."  It  follows  that 
morality  can  no  more  be  acquired  by  memorizing  a  series 
of  maxims  than  the  art  of  using  tools  can  be  acquired  by 
studying  the  laws  of  mechanics  and  of  mechanism. 


144  MANUAL  TiiAINUS'G. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 
THE  MIND  AND  THE  HAND. 

The  Mind  and  the  Hand  are  Allies  ;  the  Mind  speculates,  the  Hand 
tests  its  Speculations  in  Things. — The  Hand  explodes  the  Errors  of 
the  Mind — it  searches  after  Truth  and  finds  it  in  Things. — Mental 
Errors  are  subtile ;  they  elude  us,  but  the  False  in  Things  stands  self- 
exposed.— The  Hand  is  the  Mind's  Moral  Rudder. — The  Organ  of 
Touch  the  most  Wonderful  of  the  Senses;  all  the  Others  are  Pas- 
sive ;  it  alone  is  Active.  — Sir  Charles  Bell's  Discovery  of  a  "  Muscular 
Sense." — Dr.  Henry  Maudsley  on  the  Muscular  Sense. — The  Hand 
influences  the  Brain. — Connected  Thought  impossible  without  Lan- 
guage, and  Language  dependent  upon  Objects;  and  all  Artificial 
Objects  are  the  Work  of  the  Hand. — Progress  is  therefore  the  Im- 
print of  the  Hand  upon  Matter  in  Art. — The  Hand  is  nearer  the 
Brain  than  are  the  Eye  and  the  Ear. — The  Marvellous  Works  of 
the  Hand. 

A  PURELY  mental  acquirement  is  a  theorem — some- 
thing to  be  proved.  As  to  whether  the  theorem  is  sus- 
ceptible of  proof  is  always  a  question  until  the  doubt  is 
solved  by  the  act  of  doing.  Hence  Comenius's  definition 
of  education — "  Let  those  things  that  have  to  be  done  be 
learned  by  doing  them"-  — is  profoundly  philosophical, 
since  nothing  can  be  fully  learned  without  the  final  act 
of  doing,  owing  to  the  fact  of  the  incompleteness  of  all 
theoretical  knowledge. 

The  mind  and  the  hand  are  natural  allies.  The  mind 
speculates,  the  hand  tests  the  speculations  of  the  mind  by 
the  law  of  practical  application.  The  hand  explodes  the 
errors  of  the  mind,  for  it  inquires,  so  to  speak,  by  the  act 
of  doing,  whether  or  not  a  given  theorem  is  demonstra- 


THE   MIND   AND  THE   HAND.  145 

ble  in  the  form  of  a  problem.  The  hand  is,  therefore, 
not  only  constantly  searching  after  the  truth,  but  is  cor 
stantly  finding  it.*  It  is  possible  for  the  mind  to  indulge 
in  false  logic,  to  make  the  worse  appear  the  better  rea- 
son, without  instant  exposure.  But  for  the  hand  to  work 
falsely  is  to  produce  a  misshapen  thing — tool  or  machine 
— which  in  its  construction  gives  the  lie  to  its  maker. 
Thus  the  hand  that  is  false  to  truth,  in  the  very  act 
publishes  the  verdict  of  its  own  guilt,  exposes  itself  to 
contempt  and  derision,  convicts  itself  of  unskilfulness  or 
of  dishonesty. 

There  is  no  escaping  the  logical  conclusion  of  an  in- 
vestigation into  the  relations  existing  between  the  mind 
and  the  hand.  The  hand  is  scarcely  less  the  guide  than 
the  agent  of  the  mind.  It  steadies  the  mind.  It  is 
the  mind's  moral  rudder,  its  balance-wheel.  It  is  the 
mind's  monitor.  It  is  constantly  appealing  to  the  mind, 
by  its  acts,  to  "  hew  to  the  line,  let  the  chips  fly  where 
they  may." 

Dr.  George  Wilson  says,  "  In  many  respects  the  organ 
of  touch,  as  embodied  in  the  hand,  is  the  most  wonderful 
of  the  senses.  The  organs  of  the  other  senses  are  pas- 
sive ;  the  organ  of  touch  alone  is  active.  .  .  .  The  hand 
selects  what  it  shall  touch,  and  touches  what  it  pleases. 
It  puts  away  from  it  the  things  which  it  hates,  and  beck- 
ons towards  it  the  things  which  it  desires.  .  .  .  More- 


*  "  In  other  cases,  even  by  the  strictest  attention,  it  is  not  possible 
to  give  complete  or  strict  truth  in  words.  We  could  not,  by  any 
number  of  words,  describe  the  color  of  a  ribbon  so  as  to  enable  a 
mercer  to  match  it  without  seeing  it.  But  an  '  accurate '  colorist  can 
convey  the  required  intelligence  at  once,  with  a  tint  on  paper." — 
' '  The  Laws  of  Feesole, "  Vol.  I. ,  p.  7.  By  John  Ruskin,  LL.  D.  New 
York:  John  Wiley  &  Sons,  1879. 


146  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

over,  the  hand  cares  not  only  for  its  own  wants,  but  when 
the  other  organs  of  the  senses  are  rendered  useless  takes 
their  duties  upon  it.  ...  The  blind  man  reads  with 
his  hand,  the  dumb  man  speaks  with  it ;  it  plucks  the 
flower  for  the  nostril,  and  supplies  the  tongue  with  ob- 
jects of  taste.  Not  less  amply  does  it  give  expression  to 
the  wit,  the  genius,  the  will,  the  power  of  man.  Put  a 
sword  into  it  and  it  will  fight,  a  plough  and  it  will  till,  a 
harp  and  it  will  play,  a  pencil  and  it  will  paint,  a  pen  and 
it  will  speak.  What,  moreover,  is  a  ship,  a  railway,  a 
light-house,  or  a  palace — what  indeed  is  a  whole  city,  a 
whole  continent  of  cities,  all  the  cities  of  the  globe,  nay 
the  very  globe  itself,  so  far  as  man  has  changed  it,  but 
the  work  of  that  giant  hand  with  which  the  human  race, 
acting  as  one  mighty  man,  has  executed  his  will."* 

There  is  a  philosophical  explanation  of  the  versatility 
of  the  hand  so  graphically  portrayed  in  the  foregoing 
passage,  and  it  is  found  in  Sir  Charles  Bell's  great  discov- 
ery of  a  "  muscular  sense."  The  principle  of  this  discov- 
ery is  that "  there  are  distinct  nerves  of  sensation  and  of 
motion  or  volition — one  set  bearing  messages  from  the 
body  to  the  brain,  and  the  other  from  the  brain  or  will 
to  the  body. " 

In  his  work  on  the  hand,  after  reviewing  the  line  of 
argument  which  led  to  his  discovery,  Sir  Charles  says, 
"  By  such  arguments  I  have  been  in  the  habit  of  show- 
ing that  we  possess  a  muscular  sense,  and  that  without  it 
we  could  have  no  guidance  of  the  frame.  We  could  not 
command  our  muscles  in  standing,  far  less  in  walking, 
leaping,  or  running,  had  we  not  a  perception  of  the  con- 


*  "The  Five  Gateways  of  Knowledge,"  p.  121.    By  George  Wil- 
son, M.D.,  F.R.S.E.     London:  Macmillau  &  Co.,  1881. 


THE   MIND  AND  THE  HAND.  147 

dition  of  the  muscles  previous  to  the  exercise  of  the  will. 
And  as  for  the  hand,  it  is  not  more  the  freedom  of  its 
action  which  constitutes  its  perfection,  than  the  knowl- 
edge which  we  have  of  these  motions,  and  our  conse- 
quent ability  to  direct  it  with  the  utmost  precision."* 

On  the  influence  of  the  muscular  sense,  Dr.  Henry 
Maudsley  has  these  pertinent  observations : 

"  Those  who  would  degrade  the  body,  in  order,  as  they 
imagine,  to  exalt  the  mind,  should  consider  more  deeply 
than  they  do  the  importance  of  our  muscular  expressions 
of  feeling.  The  manifold  shades  and  kinds  of  expression 
which  the  lips  present — their  gibes,  gambols,  and  flashes 
of  merriment ;  the  quick  language  of  a  quivering  nostril ; 
the  varied  waves  and  ripples  of  beautiful  emotion  which 
play  on  the  human  countenance,  with  the  spasms  of  pas- 
sion that  disfigure  it — all  which  we  take  such  pains  to 
embody  in  art  —  are  simply  effects  of  muscular  action. 
.  .  .  Fix  the  countenance  in  the  pattern  of  a  particular 
emotion — in  a  look  of  anger,  of  wonder,  or  of  scorn — and 
the  emotion  whose  appearance  is  thus  imitated  will  not  fail 
to  be  aroused.  And  if  we  try,  while  the  features  are  fixed 
in  the  expression  of  one  passion,  to  call  up  in  the  mind  a 
quite  different  one,  we  shall  find  it  impossible  to  do  so. 
.  .  .  We  perceive,  then,  that  the  muscles  are  not  alone  the 
machinery  by  which  the  mind  acts  upon  the  world,  but 
that  their  actions  are  essential  elements  in  our  mental  op- 
erations. The  superiority  of  the  human  over  the  animal 
mind  seems  to  be  essentially  connected  with  the  great- 
er variety  of  muscular  action  of  which  man  is  capable  ; 


*  "The  Hand  :  its  Mechanism  and  Vital  Endowments  as  Evinc- 
ing Design,"  p.  151.  By  Sir  Charles  Bell,  K.G.H.,  F.E.S.,  L.  and  E. 
Harper  &  Brothers,  1864. 

7 


148  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

were  he  deprived  of  the  infinitely  varied  movements  of 
hands,  tongue,  larynx,  lips,  and  face,  in  which  he  is  so  far 
ahead  of  the  animals,  it  is  probable  that  he  would  be  no 
better  than  an  idiot,  notwithstanding  he  might  have  a 
normal  development  of  brain."* 

It  is  through  the  muscular  sense  that  the  hand  influ- 
ences the  brain.  According  to  Sir  Charles  the  hand  acts 
first.  It  telegraphs,  for  example,  that  it  is  ready  to  grasp 
the  chisel  or  the  sledge-hammer,  or  seize  the  pen,  where- 
upon the  brain  telegraphs  back  precise  directions  as  to 
the  work  to  be  done.  These  messages  to  and  fro  are 
lightning-like  flashes  of  intelligence,  which  blend  or  fuse 
all  the  powers  of  the  man,  both  mental  and  physical,  and 
inform  and  inspire  the  mass  with  vital  force,  f 

Through  constant  use  the  muscular  sense  is  sharpened 
to  a  marvellous  degree  of  fineness,  and  the  hand,  perme- 
ated by  it,  forms  habits  which  react  powerfully  upon  the 
mind.  If,  now,  during  the  period  of  childhood  and  youth, 
the  hand  is  exercised  in  the  useful  and  beautiful  arts,  its 
muscular  sense  will  be  developed  normally,  or  in  the  di- 


*  "Body  and  Mind,"  p.  32.  By  Henry  Maudsley,  M.D.  New 
York:  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  1883. 

f  The  goldsmith's  art  was  one  of  the  finest  among  the  ancients, 
and  so  continued  far  into  the  Middle  Ages.  The  cutting  of  cameos, 
for  example,  required  the  highest  skill  and  produced  the  most  ex- 
quisite results.  Mr.  Ruskin  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  "all  the 
great  early  Italian  masters  of  painting  and  sculpture,  without  ex- 
ception, began  by  being  goldsmiths'  apprentices;"  and  that  "they 
felt  themselves  so  indebted  to,  and  formed  by,  the  master  crafts- 
man who  had  mainly  disciplined  their  fingers,  whether  in  -work  on 
gold  or  marble,  that  they  practically  considered  him  their  father, 
and  took  his  name  rather  than  their  own." — "Fors  Clavigera," 
Part  III.,  p.  291.  By  John  Ruskin,  LL.D.  New  York:  John 
Wiley  &  Sons,  1881. 


THE  MIND   AND   THE  HAND.  149 

rection  of  rectitude,  and  the  reflex  effect  of  this  growth 
upon  the  mind  will  be  beneficent. 

It  is  thus  that  the  trained  hand  comes  at  last  to  foresee, 
as  it  were,  that  a  false  proposition  is  surely  destined  to 
be  exploded.  The  habit  of  rectitude  gives  it  prescience. 
It  invariably  discovers,  sooner  or  later,  that  a  false  prop- 
osition, when  embodied  in  wood  or  iron,  becomes  a  con- 
spicuous abortion,  involving  in  disgrace  both  the  designer 
and  the  maker.  A  false  proposition  in  the  abstract  may 
be  rendered  very  alluring;  a  false  proposition  in  the 
concrete  is  always  hideous.  One  of  the  chief  effects  of 
manual  training  is,  then,  the  discovery  and  development 
of  truth ;  and  truth,  in  its  broadest  signification,  is  merely 
another  name  for  justice ;  and  justice  is  the  synonym  of 
morality. 

It  has  been  shown  that  thought  and  speecli  are  dead 
unless  embodied  in  things.  It  may  also  be  asserted  with 
confidence  that  man  would  lose  the  power  of  speech  al- 
most wholly  if  his  words  should  cease  to  be  realized  in 
things.  Mr.  Darwin  declares  that  "a  complex  train  of 
thought  can  no  more  be  carried  on  without  the  aid  of 
words,  whether  spoken  or  silent,  than  a  long  calculation 
without  the  use  of  figures  or  algebra."*  And  Dr.  Mauds- 
ley  says,  "But  neither  these  instances  nor  the  case  of 
Laura  Bridgman  can  be  used  to  prove  that  it  is  possible 
to  think  without  any  means  of  physical  expression.  On 
the  contrary  the  evidence  is  all  the  other  way.  The  deaf 
and  dumb  man  invents  his  own  signs,  which  he  draws 
from  the  nature  of  objects,  seizing  the  most  striking  out- 
line, or  the  principal  movement  of  an  action,  and  using 

*  "The  Descent  of  Man,"  p.  88.  By  Charles  Darwin,  M.A.  New 
York :  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  1881. 


150  MANUAL  TEAINING. 

them  afterwards  as  tokens  to  represent  the  objects.  The 
deaf  and  dumb  gesticulate  also  as  they  think ;  and  Laura 
Bridgman's  fingers  worked,  making  the  initial  movements 
for  letters  of  the  finger  alphabet,  not  only  during  her 
working  thoughts,  but  in  her  dreams.  If  we  substitute 
for  'names'  the  motor  intuitions,  or  take  care  to  com- 
prise in  language  all  the  modes  of  expressing  thoughts, 
whether  verbal,  vocal  writing,  or  gesture  language,  then 
it  is  unquestionable  that  thought  is  impossible  without 
language."* 

As  connected  thoughts  are  impossible  without  words, 
or  signs  of  words,  so  words  are  dependent  upon  objects 
for  their  existence.  Says  Dr.  Maudsley,  "  Words  cannot 
attain  to  definiteness  save  as  living  outgrowths  of  reali- 
ties.'^ And  Heyse  says,  "  Thought  is  not  even  present 
to  the  thinker  till  he  has  set  it  forth  out  of  himself." 

It  follows  that  language  has  its  origin  not  less  in  ex- 
ternal objects  than  in  the  mind.  Objects  make  impres- 
sions upon  the  mind  through  the  senses,  and  words  serve 
as  the  means  of  preserving  a  record  of  such  impressions 
and  of  communicating  them  to  other  minds.  If,  now, 
the  mind  should  cease  to  receive  impressions,  language 
would  no  longer  be  required,  since  there  would  be  noth- 
ing to  express ;  and  the  occasion  for  the  use  of  language 
ceasing  to  exist,  the  power  of  speech  would  ultimately  be 
lost.  The  power  of  speech,  then,  depends  upon  a  con- 


*  "Physiology  of  the  Mind,"  p.  480.  By  Henry  Maudsley,  M.D. 
New  York:  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  1883. 

f  "I  therefore  declare  my  conviction, "says  Max  Milller,  "whether 
right  or  wrong,  as  explicitly  as  possible,  that  thought  in  one  sense 
of  the  word,  i.e.,  in  reasoning,  is  impossible  without  language." — 
"Physiology  of  the  Mind,"  p.  480.  By  Henry  Maudsley,  M.D. 
New  York:  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  1883. 


THE   MINI)   AND  THE   HAND.  151 

tinuous  succession  of  impressions  made  upon  the  mind 
by  its  contact,  through  the  senses,  with  matter  in  its 
various  forms,  whether  in  nature  or  in  art. 

It  may  also  be  claimed  that  the  power  of  speech  de- 
pends almost  entirely  upon  the  endless  succession  of 
fresh  objects  presented  to  the  mind  by  the  hand.  These 
form  the  subject  as  well  as  the  occasion  of  speech.  If 
the  hand  should  cease  to  make  new  things,  new  words 
would  cease  to  be  required.  The  principal  changes  in 
language  arise  out  of  new  discoveries  in  science  and  new 
inventions  in  art,  each  fresh  discovery  of  science  giving 
rise  to  many  new  things  in  art.  Art  and  science  react 
upon  each  other.""  The  growth  of  a  State,  its  advance 
in  the  scale  of  civilization,  depends  upon  progress  in  the 
practical  arts.  Hence  the  fact  that,  when  a  State  ceases 
to  advance,  its  language  ceases  to  grow,  becomes  station- 
ary, stagnates.  In  such  a  State  there  would  be  no  occa- 
sion for  new  words.  If  a  constantly  diminishing  number 
of  objects  were  presented  to  the  mind,  speech  would 
become  less  and  less  necessary.  If  no  new  objects  were 
presented,  no  fresh  impressions  upon  the  mind  would  be 
made,  and  speech  would  degenerate  into  a  mere  iteration. 
If  the  hands  should  cease  to  labor  in  the  arts,  should 
cease  to  make  things,  should  cease  to  plant  and  gather, 
the  scope  of  speech  would  be  still  further  restricted, 
would  be  confined  to  an  expression  of  the  wants  of  sav- 
ages subsisting  on  the  native  fruits  of  field  and  forest. 

It  comes  to  this,  that  progress  can  find  expression  only 

*  "And  the  great  advances  in  science  have  uniformly  corresponded 
with  the  invention  of  some  instrument  by  which  the  power  of  the 
senses  has  been  increased,  or  the  range  of  action  extended." — "Phys- 
iology of  the  Mind, "p.  8.  By  Henry  Maudsley,  M.D.  New  York: 
D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  1883. 


152  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

in  the  concrete.  Guttenberg  had  an  idea  that  lie  could  em- 
ploy movable  types  in  the  production  of  books.  Suppose 
he  had  been  content  with  the  mere  promulgation  of  his 
theory  in  words,  and  that  those  who  came  after  him  had 
been  similarly  content?  There  would  have  been  no 
printing-presses  down  to  the  present  time.  Suppose  that 
Watt  and  Stephenson  and  Fulton  had  been  content  with 
the  declaration,  in  words,  of  the  discoveries  they  made 
in  regard  to  the  application  of  the  power  of  steam  to 
practical  purposes,  and  that  those  who  came  after  them 
had  been  similarly  content?  There  would  have  been 
neither  railways,  nor  steamships,  nor  steam-driven  ma- 
chinery of  any  kind  down  to  the  present  time. 

As  words  are  essential  to  the  processes  of  thought,  so 
objects  are  essential  to  words  or  living  speech.  And  as 
all  objects  made  by  man  owe  their  existence  to  the  hand, 
it  follows  that  the  hand  exerts  an  incalculable  influence 
upon  the  mind,  and  so  constitutes  the  most  potent  agency 
in  the  work  of  civilization.  It  was  not  without  good 
reason  that  Anaxagoras  characterized  man  as  the  wisest 
of  animals  because  of  his  having  hands.  And  what  is  it 
to  be  wise  ?  To  be  wise  is  "  to  have  the  power  of  dis- 
cerning and  judging  correctly,  or  of  discriminating  be- 
tween what  is  true  and  what  is  false ;  between  what  is 
fit  and  proper  and  what  is  improper."  The  hand  is  used 
as  the  synonym  of  wisdom  because  it  is  only  in  the  con- 
crete that  the  false  is  sure  of  detection,  and  it  is  through 
the  hand  alone  that  ideas  are  realized  in  things.*  Again 
we  have  the  hand  as  the  discoverer  of  truth. 


*  "Let  him  [the  youth]  once  learn  to  take  a  straight  shaving  off  a 
plank,  or  draw  a  fine  curve  without  faltering,  or  lay  a  brick  level  in 
its  mortar,  and  he  has  learned  a  multitude  of  other  matters  which  no 


THE   MIND  AND  THE  HAND.  153 

The  assertion  of  the  majesty  of  the  hand  by  the  Ionic 
philosopher  of  the  fourth  century  B.  C.  contained  the 
germ  of  the  manual  training  idea  of  this  latter  part  of 
the  nineteenth  century.  Anaxagoras  was  unconsciously, 
no  doubt, -struggling  towards  the  light,  towards  the  in- 
ductive method  of  investigation,  towards  the  sole  avenue 
through  which  it  is  possible  to  study  the  mind,  namely, 
through  the  body.  The  ignorance  of  the  ancients  on  the 
subject  of  physiology  was  so  dense  as  to  leave  them  no 
resource  save  speculative  philosophy.  The  progress 
made  in  the  study  of  anatomy,  and  organic  and  inorganic 
chemistry  at  Alexandria,  was,  however,  considerable.  The 
foundations  of  a  systematic  physiology  were  being  secure- 
ly laid  by  Hippocrates,  llerophilus,  and  their  compeers  of 
the  medical  profession,  and  the  way  was  thus  being  open- 
ed to  an  intelligent  study  of  the  mind.  It  is  highly  prob- 
able that  this  growing  disposition  to  investigate  things, 
together  with  the  increasing  importance  to  civilization 
of  the  useful  arts,  would  soon  have  reacted  destructively 
upon  the  speculative  philosophy  of  the  time  had  not  a 
series  of  national  disasters,  involving  the  fall  of  Greece 
and  Rome,  overwhelmed  both  arts  and  philosophy  in  one 
common  ruin. 

From  the  fall  of  Rome  to  the  time  of  Bacon  specu- 
lative philosophy  dominated  the  world.  Progress  dates 
from  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century,  but  it 
was  very  slow  until  within  a  hundred  years.  Philosophy 
has  now,  however,  found  a  scientific  basis.  Instead  of 
speculating  about  the  "  theory  of  vitality,"  it  concerns 
itself  with  "the  natural  phenomena  of  living  bodies,  so 

lips  of  man  could  ever  teach  him." — "Time  and  Tide,"  p.  145.     By 
John  Ruskin,  LL.D.     New  York:  John  Wiley  &  Sons,  1883. 


154  MANUAfc  TRAINING. 

far  as  they  are  appreciable  by  the  human  senses  and  in- 
telligence." 

But  the  schools  have  not  moved  forward  with  events. 
Their  methods  are  unscientific ;  they  are  still  dominated 
by  the  mediaeval  ideas  of  speculative  philosophy.  One 
of  the  ablest  educators  in  this  country  has  well  observed 
that  "there  has  been  very  little  change  in  the  ideas 
which  have  controlled  our  methods  of  education,  and 
these  ideas  were  formed  something  like  fonr  hundred 
years  ago.  Like  nearly  all  the  great  agencies  of  modern 
civilization,  the  established  system  of  education  dates 
from  the  Renaissance,  and  the  direction  given  to  the 
schools  at  that  time  has  been  followed  with  but  slight 
modification  ever  since."* 

The  justice  of  this  arraignment  of  the  schools  for  ex- 
treme conservatism  is  shown  by  the  remark  of  a  promi- 
nent educator  who  opposes  the  incorporation  of  manual 
training  in  the  curriculum  of  the  public  schools.  He 
says,  "  Some  even  go  so  far  as  to  regard  the  fingers  as  a 
new  avenue  to  the  brain,  and  think  that  great  pedagogic 
advantages  will  be  given  by  the  new  method,  so  that 
boys  may  make  equal  attainments  in  arithmetic,  read- 
ing, and  grammar  in  less  time.  .  .  .  They  [teachers]  will 
still  find  the  eye  and  ear  nearer  to  the  brain  than  the 
hand."  No  assumption  could  be  more  false  than  this, 
that  the  eye  and  the  ear  are  more  important  organs  than 
the  hand  because  they  are  located,  physically,  nearer  the 
brain.  The  attribute  of  mobility  with  which  the  hand  is 
endowed  confers  upon  it  not  only  the  potency  of  the 


*  Mr.  James  MacAlister,  Superintendent  of  Schools  of  the  City  of 
Philadelphia,  before  the  American  Institute  of  Instruction  at  Sarato- 
ga, July  13, 1882. 


THE  MIND  AND  THE   HAND.  155 

closest  possible  proximity,  but  each  of  the  countless  po- 
sitions it  may  assume,  together  with  its  flexibility  and 
adaptability,  multiplies  its  powers  in  the  order  of  a  geo- 
metrical ratio. 

This  disposition  to  undervalue  the  hand  is  an  inheri- 
tance from  the  speculative  philosophy  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  which  was  based  on  contempt  of  the  body  and  all 
its  members.  The  effect  of  this  false  doctrine  has  been 
vicious  in  the  extreme.  Contempt  for  the  body  has  gen- 
erated a  feeling  of  contempt  for  manual  labor,  and  repug- 
nance to  manual  labor  has  multiplied  dishonest  practices 
in  the  course  of  the  struggle  to  acquire  wealth  by  any 
other  means  than  manual  labor,  and  so  corrupted  society. 

That  man  should  feel  contempt  for  the  most  efficient 
member  of  his  own  body  is,  indeed,  incomprehensible, 
since  contempt  for  the  hand  leads  logically  to  contempt 
for  its  works,  and  its  works  comprise  all  the  visible 
results  of  civilization.  To  enumerate  the  works  of  the 
hand  would  be  to  describe  the  world  as  it  at  present  ex- 
ists in  contradistinction  to  the  world  in  a  state  of  nature. 
Everywhere  we  behold  with  admiration  and  wonder  the 
marvellous  triumphs  of  the  hand,  from  the  iron  bridge 
that  spans  the  torrent  of  Niagara  to  the  steel  microm- 
eter that  measures  the  millionth  part  of  an  inch.  It 
matters  not  whether  the  hand  is  nearer  or  farther  from 
the  brain  than  the  eye  and  the  ear,  it  is  able  to  afford 
powerful  aid  to  .them. 

Man  would  explore  the  planetary  system ;  he  lifts  his 
longing  eyes  to  the  starry  vault,  but  in  vain ;  it  is  a 
sealed  book !  The  hand  fashions  the  telescope,  adjusts 
it,  places  it  at  a  convenient  angle,  and  the  milky  way  is 
resolved  into  millions  of  stars,  "  scattered  like  glittering 
dust  on  the  black  ground  of  the  general  heavens,"  the 

7* 


156  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

lunar  mountains  are  measured,  and  the  spots  on  the  sun 
revealed.  Man  would  study  the  anatomy  and  habits  of  the 
myriads  of  insects  in  which  the  teeming  earth  abounds. 
Impossible !  The  mechanism  of  the  eye  is  not  adapted 
to  such  a  delicate  operation.  But  the  hand  presents  the 
microscope,  and  a  world  of  hitherto  unknown  minute  ex- 
istences is  revealed  with  a  distinctness  which  permits  the 
most  exhaustive  investigation.  Thus,  through  the  aid  of 
the  hand,  the  eye  now  contemplates  with  philosophic 
interest  the  ever-changing  aspect  of  the  spots  on  the  sun 
at  a  distance  of  ninety  million  miles,  and  now  imprisons 
the  red  ant,  measuring  only  y^-g-  of  an  inch  in  length,  and 
studies  its  physiology,  counting  its  pulsations,  classifying 
its  nerves  and  muscles,  and  weighing  its  brain.  Man 
would  speak  with  his  friend  or  business  correspondent 
miles  away.  Neither  the  voice  nor  the  ear  is  adapted  to 
the  task.  But  the  hand  fashions  and  presents  the  tele- 
phone, and  the  conversation  proceeds  even  in  a  whisper. 
It  will  be  said  that  the  mind  devises  the  telescope,  the  mi- 
croscope, and  the  telephone.  True,  but  their  construction 
would  be  impossible  without  the  hand.  And  is  it  at  all 
probable  that  the  mind  would  have  devised  these  admira- 
ble instruments  if  man  had  been  made  without  hands  ?* 

*  "The  hand  is  the  most  marvellous  instrument  in  the  world;  it  is 
the  necessary  complement  of  the  mind  in  dealing  with  matter  in  all 
its  varied  forms.  It  is  the  hand  that  'rounded  Peter's  dome;'  it  is 
the  hand  that  carved  those  statues  in  marble  and  bronze,  that  painted 
those  pictures  in  palace  and  church,  which  we  travel  into  distant 
lands  to  admire;  it  is  the  hand  that  builds  the  ships  which  sail  the 
sea,  laden  with  the  commerce  of  the  world ;  it  is  the  hand  that  con- 
structs the  machinery  which  moves  the  busy  industries  of  this  age  of 
steam;  it  is  the  hand  that  enables  the  mind  to  realize  in  a  thousand 
ways  its  highest  imaginings,  its  profoundest  reasonings,  and  its  most 
practical  inventions."  —  Mr.  James  MacAlister,  Superintendent  of 
Schools  of  the  City  of  Philadelphia,  before  the  American  Institute  of 
Instruction  at  Saratoga,  July  13, 1882. 


THE   POWER  OF  THE  TRAINED  HAND.  157 


CHAPTER  XV. 
THE  POWER  OF  THE  TRAINED  HAND. 

The  Legend  of  Adam  and  the  Stick  with  which  he  subdued  the  Ani- 
mals.—The  Stick  is  the  Symbol  of  Power,  and  only  the  Hand  can 
wield  it. — The  Hand  imprisons  Steam  and  Electricity,  and  keeps 
them  at  hard  Labor.— The  Destitution  of  England  Two  Hundred 
and  Fifty  Years  ago :  a  Pen  Picture.  -^The  Transformation  wrought 
by  the  Hand :  a  Pen  Picture. — It  is  due,  not  to  Men  who  make 
Laws,  but  to  Men  who  make  Things. — The  Scientist  and  the  In- 
ventor are  the  World's  Benefactors. — A  Parallel  between  the  Right 
Honorable  William  E.  Gladstone  and  Sir  Henry  Bessemer. — Mr. 
Gladstone  a  Man  of  Ideas,  Mr.  Bessemer  a  Man  of  Deeds. — The 
Value  of  the  latter's  Inventions. — Mr.  Gladstone  represents  the  Old 
Education,  Mr.  Bessemer  the  New. 

IT  has  been  remarked  that  man  is  the  wisest  of  animals 
because  he  has  hands.  It  is  equally  true  that  he  is  the 
most  powerful  of  animals  because  he  has  hands.  It  is 
with  the  hand  that  man  has  subdued  all  the  animals. 
There  is  a  legend  to  the  effect  that  on  the  day  when 
Adam  revolted  against  his  Maker,  the  animals,  in  their 
turn,  revolted  against  him,  and  ceased  to  obey  him. 
"Adam  called  on  the  Lord  for  help,  and  the  Lord  com- 
manded him  to  take  a  branch  from  the  nearest  tree  and 
make  of  it  a  weapon,  and  strike  with  it  the  first  animal 
that  should  refuse  to  obey  him.  Adam  seized  the  branch, 
the  leaves  fell  from  it  of  their  own  accord,  and  he  found 
himself  furnished  with  a  stick  proportioned  to  hi& 
height.  When  the  animals  saw  this  weapon  in  the  hands 
of  the  man  they  were  seized  with  an  instinctive  fear 
mingled  with  wonder,  and  they  did  not  dare  to  attack 


158  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

him.  A  lion  alone,  bolder  than  the  rest,  leaped  upon 
him  to  devour  him,  but  Adam,  who  stood  upon  his 
guard,  swift  as  lightning  whirled  his  stick  and  felled  him 
to  the  earth  with  a  single  blow !  At  this  sight  the  terror 
of  the  other  animals  was  so  great  that  they  approached 
him  trembling,  and  in  token  of  their  submission  licked 
the  stick  that  he  held  in  his  hand."* 

Throughout  all  the  early  ages  the  stick  was  both  the 
symbol  and  the  instrument  of  power ;  and  it  is  only  the 
hand  that  can  grasp  and  wield  the  stick.  The  early 
kings  reigned  by  virtue  of  the  strong  arm  and  the  supple 
hand.  They  claimed  to  be  descended  from  Hercules, 
and  their  emblem  of  power  was  a  knotty  stick.  Nor 
does  empire  depend  less  upon  the  hand  now  than  it  did 
in  the  morning  of  time. 

The  hand  no  longer  grasps  the  knotty  stick;  it  no 
longer  menaces  mankind.  It  wields  the  mechanical  pow- 
ers. It  imprisons  steam  and  electricity,  and  keeps  them 
at  hard  labor.  It  makes  ploughs,  planters,  harvesters, 
sewing-machines,  locomotives,  and  steamships.  It  digs 
canals,  opens  mines,  builds  bridges,  makes  roads,  erects 
mills  and  factories,  constructs  harbors  and  docks,  reclaims 
waste  lands,  and  covers  the  globe  with  tracks  of  steel 
over  which  the  commerce  of  the  world  is  borne. 

Two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago  England  was  desti- 
tute of  most  of  these  things.  It  had  then  no  good  dirt 
roads  even,  no  good  bridges,  no  canals,  no  public  works 
worth  mentioning,  and  scarcely  any  manufactories  of 
importance.  The  post-bags  were  carried  on  horseback 


*  "The  Story  of  the  Stick,"  p.  2.  Translated  and  Adapted  from 
the  French  of  Antony  Real  [Pernand  Michel].  New  York:  J.  "W. 
Bouton,  1875. 


THE   POWER  OF  THE  TRAINED   HAND.  159 

once  a  week.  The  highways  were  besieged  by  robbers. 
One-fifth  of  the  community  were  paupers.  Mechanics 
worked  for  from  sixpence  to  a  shilling  a  day.  The  chief 
food  of  the  poor  was  rye,  barley,  or  oats.  The  people 
were  ignorant  and  brutal — "  masters  beat  their  servants, 
and  husbands  beat  their  wives.  Teachers  used  the  lash  as 
the  principal  means  of  imparting  knowledge.  The  mob 
rejoiced  in  fights  of  all  kinds,  and  shouted  with  glee 
when  an  eye  was  torn  out  or  a  finger  chopped  off  in 
these  savage  encounters.  Executions  were  favorite  pub- 
lic amusements.  The  prisons  were  full,  and  proved  to  be 
fruitful  nurseries  of  crime." 

From  little  better  than  a  wilderness,  and  almost  a 
state  of  savagery,  England  has  been  transformed  into  a 
fruitful  field,  and  its  people  raised  in  the  scale  of  civ- 
ilization. Its  public  works  are  the  admiration  of  the 
world ;  its  coffers  are  full  of  gold ;  its  strong  boxes  are 
piled  high  with  evidences  of  the  indebtedness  of  other 
nations ;  its  ships  plough  the  billows  of  every  sea,  and 
bear  the  commerce  of  every  land  ;  and  its  manufactories 
of  vast  extent  are  monuments  of  inventive  genius,  in- 
dustry, perseverance,  and  skill,  more  imposing  far  than 
the  pyramids  of  Egypt  or  the  temples  of  Greece  and 
Rome. 

To  whom  do  the  people  of  England  and  of  the  world 
owe  this  national  progress,  this  progress  in  the  useful 
arts  .on  a  scale  so  colossal  as,  by  comparison,  to  dwarf 
the  achievements  of  all  the  earlier  epochs  of  history? 
Not  to  statesmen  or  legislators.  They  neither  dig  ca- 
nals, open  mines,  build  railways,  lay  ocean  cables,  nor 
erect  factories.  The  pen  in  their  hands  may  be  mightier 
than  the  sword ;  but  it  is  no  match  for  the  plough  and 
the  reaper,  the  electric  battery  and  imprisoned  steam. 


160  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

Legislators  make  laws  but  mechanics  make  things.  On 
this  subject,  after  an  exhaustive  investigation,  Buckle 
says, "  Seeing,  therefore,  that  the  efforts  of  government 
in  favor  of  civilization  are,  when  most  successful,  alto- 
gether negative,  and  seeing,  too,  that  when  these  efforts 
are  more  than  negative  they  become  injurious,  it  clear- 
ly follows  that  all  speculations  must  be  erroneous  which 
ascribe  the  progress  of  Europe  to  the  wisdom  of  its 
rulers.  This  is  an  inference  which  rests  not  only  on  the 
arguments  already  adduced^  but  on  facts  which  might  be 
multiplied  from  every  page  of  history.  .  .  .  We  have 
seen  that  their  laws  in  favor  of  industry  have  injured 
industry,  that  their  laws  in  favor  of  religion  have  in- 
creased hypocrisy,  and  that  their  laws  to  secure  truth 
have  encouraged  perjury.  .  .  .  But  it  is  a  mere  matter 
of  history  that  our  legislators,  even  to  the  last  moment, 
were  so  terrified  by  the  idea  of  innovation  that  they  re- 
fused every  reform  until  the  voice  of  the  people  rose 
high  enough  to  awe  them  into  submission,  and  forced 
them  to  grant  what,  without  much  pressure,  they  would 
by  no  means  have  conceded."* 

It  is,  then,  clearly  not  to  the  men  who  make  laws  that 
we  are  indebted  for  progress  in  civilization,  but  to  the 
men  who  make  things.  The  scientist  who  discovers  a 
new  principle  in  physics  is  a  public  benefactor.  The 
inventor  who  devises  a  new  machine  helps  forward  the 
cause  of  progress.  Whitney's  cotton-gin  trebled  the 
value  of  the  cotton-fields  of  the  South.  The  mechanic 
who  constructs  a  machine  that  will  make  ten  or  a  hun- 
dred things  in  the  time  before  required  to  make  one 


*  "History  of  Civilization  in  England,"  Vol.  I.,  pp.  204,  205,  361 
By  Henry  Thomas  Buckle.     New  York  :  D.  Applet  on  &  Co. 


THE  POWER  OF  THE  TRAINED  HAND.  161 

thing  is  in  the  front  rank  of  the  civilizers  of  the  human 
race.* 

Inventors,  not  statesmen,  rule  the  world  through  their 
machines,  which  augment  man's  powers  and  sharpen  his 
senses.  Steam  has  made  all  civilized  countries  prosper- 
ous and  great  by  vastly  increasing  man's  powers  —  by 
making  him  hundred-handed. f 

In  1809  there  was  born  to  a  distinguished  baronet  of 
Liverpool,  England,  a  son.  The  boy  was  educated  at 
Eton  and  Christ  Church  College,  Oxford,  graduating  in 
1831.  In  1832  the  young  man  entered  Parliament.  In 
1834  he  took  office  under  Sir  Robert  Peel.  The  name 
of  the  young  man  who  commenced  life  under  such 
auspicious  circumstances  is  William  Ewart  Gladstone. 
For  nearly  half  a  century  Mr.  Gladstone  has  been  a  prom- 
inent figure  in  English  politics  and  administration.  Dur- 
ing this  long  period  of  time  he  has  been  in  the  eye  of  the 
world,  so  to  speak.  He  has  moulded  the  laws  of  an  em- 
pire, repealed  old  statutes  and  made  new  statutes,  largely 
influenced  both  the  domestic  and  the  foreign  policy  of  a 
great  nation,  and  exerted  a  considerable  degree  of  con- 


*  "Your  wealth,  your  amusement,  your  pride,  would  all  be  alike 
impossible,  but  for  those  whom  you  scorn  or  forget.  .  .  .  The  sailor 
wrestling  with  the  sea's  rage  ;  the  quiet  student  poring  over  his  book 
or  his  vial ;  the  common  worker,  without  praise,  and  nearly  without 
bread,  fulfilling  his  task  as  your  horses  drag  your  carts,  hopeless, 
and  spurned  of  all :  these  are  the  men  by  whom  England  lives." — 
"  Sesame  and  Lilies,"  p.  68.  By  John  Ruskin,  LL.D.  New  York : 
John  Wiley  &  Sons,  1884. 

f  ' '  The  causes  which  most  disturbed  or  accelerated  the  normal 
progress  of  society  in  antiquity  were  the  appearance  of  great  men ; 
in  modern  times  they  have  been  the  appearance  of  great  inventions." 
—"History  of  European  Morals,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  126.  By  William  Ed- 
ward Hartpole  Lecky,  M.  A.  New  York :  D.  Appleton  &  Co. 


162  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

trol  over  the  international  affairs  of  the  continent  of 
Europe. 

In  1813,  four  years  after  the  birth  of  Mr.  Gladstone, 
at  Charlton,  in  Hertfordshire,  England,  Henry  Bessemer 
was  born.  His  father,  Anthony  Bessemer,  had  fled  to 
England  in  1792,  a  refugee  from  France.  Henry  Besse- 
mer's  early  training  consisted  of  the  rudiments  of  an 
ordinary  education  received  in  the  parish  school  of  the 
neighboring  town  of  Hitchin.  His  father  was  a  skilled 
mechanic  and  inventor,  and  Henry  inherited  the  invent- 
ive faculty.  He  studied  and  practised  the  art  of  wood- 
turnery,  producing,  before  arriving  at  the  age  of  man- 
hood, the  most  difficult  patterns  known  to  the  art. 

At  the  age  of  eighteen,  in  the  year  1831 — the  year  in 
which  Mr.  Gladstone  completed  his  education  —  young 
Bessemer  appeared  in  London,  an  obscure,  unknown 
stranger.  He,  however,  secured  employment  as  a  mod- 
eller and  designer.  His  attention  was  soon  directed  to 
the  imperfections  of  government  stamps,  in  which  there 
had  been  no  improvement  since  the  time  of  Queen  Anne. 
He  was  informed  by  Sir  Charles  Persley,  of  the  Stamp- 
office,  that  the  frauds  in  stamps  probably  aggregated 
one  hundred  thousand  pounds  per  annum.  In  the  even- 
ings of  a  few  months  he  invented  and  made  an  im- 
proved stamp  which  obviated  the  objections  to  the  one 
then  in  use.  The  invention  was  at  once  adopted  by  the 
Stamp-office,  and  in  lieu  of  a  stipulated  sum  in  payment 
therefor,  young  Bessemer  was  asked  "  whether  he  would 
be  satisfied  with  the  position  of  superintendent  of  stamps, 
with  five  hundred  or  six  hundred  pounds  per  annum  ?" 
The  suggested  appointment  he  agreed  to  accept.  Mean- 
time, before  the  contemplated  change  occurred  in  the 
Stamp-office,  the  young  inventor  devised  a  further  im- 


THE   POWER  OF  THE  TRAINED   HAND.  163 

provement  in  the  new  stamp,  which  not  only  made  it  much 
more  perfect,  but  rendered  it  unnecessary  for  the  govern- 
ment to  employ  a  superintendent  of  stamps.  In  perfect 
good  faith  young  Bessemer  exhibited  to  the  chief  of  the 
Stamp-office  his  new  stamp,  which  was  so  palpably  an  im- 
provement on  the  other  that  it  was  at  once  preferred  and 
promptly  adopted.  What  is  more,  the  government  not 
only  declined  to  appoint  the  inventor  to  a  place,  but  de- 
clined to  give  him  a  penny  for  his  invention.  This  was  in 
1834,  the  year  in  which  Mr.  Gladstone  entered  upon  his 
long  career  as  a  representative  of  the  British  Crown.  As 
young  Mr.  Gladstone  was  entering  the  Treasury,  its  "jun- 
ior lord,"  young  Mr.  Bessemer  was  retiring  from  it  an 
unsuccessful  suitor  for  the  just  reward  of  genius  and  toil. 
He  says,  "  Thus  sad  and  dispirited,  and  with  a  burning 
sense  of  injustice  overpowering  all  other  feelings,  I  went 
my  way  from  the  Stamp-office,  too  proud  to  ask  as  a  fa- 
vor that  which  was  indubitably  my  right."* 

From  this  point,  both  of  time  and  event,  there  is  a 
very  wide  divergence  in  the  lives  of  these  great  men. 
The  one  is  a  man  of  ideas,  the  other  a  man  of  deeds. 
Mr.  Gladstone  thinks,  talks,  makes  treaties  and  laws.  He 
is  constantly  in  the  public  eye,  and  his  name  ever  on  the 
public  tongue.  -He  is  regarded  as  a  great  financier;  he 
is  certainly  a  great  orator.  He  sways  the  multitude  with 
his  eloquence.  He  takes  distinguished  part  in  the  wordy 
contests  which  occur  every  now  and  then  in  Parliament. 
These  debates  are  much  talked  of.  At  the  conclusion 
of  one  of  them  there  is  a  vote  of  want  of  confidence, 
and  Mr.  Gladstone  goes  out  of  office  and  Mr.  Dis- 


*  "The  Creators  of  the  Age  of  Steel,"  p.  20.     By  W.  T.  Jeans. 
New  York :  Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  1884. 


164  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

raeli  comes  in.  At  the  conclusion  of  another  of  them 
there  is  a  vote  of  want  of  confidence,  and  Mr.  Disraeli 
goes  out  of  office  and  Mr.  Gladstone  comes  in.  But 
whether  Mr.  Gladstone  goes  out  and  Mr.  Disraeli  comes 
in,  or  Mr.  Disraeli  goes  out  and  Mr.  Gladstone  comes  in, 
makes  very  little  difference  with  the  trade  and  commerce 
of  the  kingdom.  The  railway  traffic  continues  in  the 
one  event  or  the  other ;  the  steamers  continue  to  cross 
and  recross  the  ocean  ;  the  "  post "  comes  and  goes ;  the 
electric  current  continues  to  act  as  messenger-boy;  the 
telephone  brings  us  face  to  face  with  our  business  corre- 
spondent or  friend.  There  is,  indeed,  no  reason  why  a  vote 
of  want  of  confidence  in  Mr.  Gladstone  or  Mr.  Disraeli 
should  imply  a  want  of  confidence  in  steam  or  electricity, 
because  neither  Mr.  Gladstone  nor  Mr.  Disraeli  ever  have 
anything  to  do  with  the  application  of  these  great  forces 
to  the  uses  of  man.  They  are  entirely  absorbed,  the 
one  in  promoting  the  advancement  of  Liberalism,  and 
the  other  in  promoting  the  advancement  of  Toryism. 
And  it  is  a  curious  fact,  as  showing  the  mutability  of 
political  opinion,  that  Mr.  Disraeli  entered  public  life  as 
a  Liberal,  and  subsequently  became  a  great  Tory  leader ; 
and  Mr.  Gladstone  entered  public  life  as  a  Tory,  and  sub- 
sequently became  a  great  Liberal  leader. 

For  twenty -two  years  after  he  had  retired  empty- 
handed  from  the  government  Stamp-office  Mr.  Bessemer 
continued  his  career  as  an  inventor  and  manufacturer, 
without,  however,  attracting  any  great  share  of  public 
attention.  But  in  1856  he  announced  that  he  had  made 
a  discovery  of  vast  importance  in  the  process  of  steel 
making.*  For  a  hundred  years  previously  the  Huntsman 

*  "  The  first  patent  of  Sir  H.  Bessemer  in  which  air  is  mentioned 


THE   POWER  OF  THE  TRAINED  HAND.  165 

process  had  held  the  field.  It  yielded  excellent  steel  but 
was  very  expensive.  Mr.  Bessemer  announced  that  he 
could  produce  splendid  cast -steel  at  about  the  cost  of 
making  iron.  The  announcement  was  received  with 
much  incredulity;  but  the  "Bessemer  converter"  was 
exhibited,  the  new  process  shown,  and  the  result  seemed 
to  confirm  the  verity  of  the  claim  of  the  inventor.  Prac- 
tical difficulties,  however,  postponed  its  complete  success 
till  1860,  when  the  new  process  supplanted  all  others. 

Mr.  Bessemer  now  stood  at  the  head  of  the  inventors 
of  the  world,  and  Mr.  Gladstone,  as  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer  under  Lord  Palmerston,  had  come  to  be  re- 
garded as  one  of  the  most  skilful  governmental  financiers 
in  Europe,  which  meant  that  he  was  an  adept  in  devising 
schemes  of  taxation  calculated  to  yield  the  most  revenue 
with  the  least  popular  discontent.  When  it  is  considered 
that  it  is  necessary  for  the  English  Minister  of  Finance 
to  draw  from  the  British  people  more  than  a  million  dol- 
lars every  morning  of  the  year,  including  Sundays,  before 
either  the  English  lord  or  the  English  peasant  can  indulge 
in  a  free  breakfast,  so  to  speak,  the  extreme  delicacy  of 
the  duties  devolving  upon  him  will  be  understood  and 
appreciated.  If  he  proposes  the  repeal  of  the  soap  tax 
in  order  to  extinguish  the  slave-trade,  he  must  impose 
an  additional  penny  in  the  pound  on  malt  liquors  in 
order  to  put  an  end  to  the  vice  of  drunkenness.  He  is 
constantly  between  Scylla  and  Charybdis  —  in  keeping 

as  the  oxidizing  agent  is  dated  October  17,  1855,  and  other  three 
months  were  spent  in  experimenting  before  the  idea  of  introducing 
the  air  from  the  bottom  of  a  large  converter  struck  him.  The  patent 
embodying  the  latter  idea  is  dated  February  11,  1856." — "  The  Cre- 
ators of  the  Age  of  Steel,"  note  to  p.  38.  By  W.  T.  Jeans.  New 
York  :  Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  1884. 


166  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

off  the  one  he  is  in  danger  of  being  swallowed  up  in  the 
other.  And  if  he  can,  at  the  end  of  the  fiscal  year,  find 
a  million  dollars  to  apply  to  the  liquidation  of  the  public 
debt,  he  is  extremely  fortunate.  From  1836,  about  the 
time  Mr.  Gladstone  began  his  public  career,  down  to  ten 
years  ago,  the  several  chancellors  of  the  English  Excheq- 
uer, including  Mr.  Gladstone,  contrived  to  save,  in  the 
aggregate,  about  thirteen  million  dollars  for  this  purpose. 

Let  us  recur  a  moment  to  the  subject  of  the  invention 
of  Mr.  Bessemer.  It  went  into  operation  in  1860.  The 
temptation  to  reproduce  Mr.  Bessemer's  own  description 
of  his  process,  which  revolutionized  the  manufacture  of 
steel,  is  irresistible.  It  is  as  follows : 

"The  converting  vessel  is  mounted  on  an  axis  at  or 
near  its  centre  of  gravity.  It  is  constructed  of  boiler- 
plates, and  is  lined  either  with  fire-brick,  road-drift,  or 
gannister,  which  resists  the  heat  better  than  any  other 
material  yet  tried,  and  has  also  the  advantage  of  cheap- 
ness. The  vessel,  having  been  heated,  is  brought  into  the 
requisite  position  to  receive  its  charge  of  melted  metal, 
without  either  of  the  tuyeres  (or  air-holes)  being  below 
the  surface.  No  action  can  therefore  take  place  until 
the  vessel  is  turned  up  (so  that  the  blast  can,  enter 
through  the  tuyeres).  The  process  is  thus  in  an  instant 
brought  into  full  activity,  and  small  though  powerful 
jets  of  air  spring  upward  through  the  fluid  mass.  The 
air,  expanding  in  volume,  divides  itself  into  globules,  or 
bursts  violently  upward,  carrying  with  it  some  hundred- 
weight of  fluid  metal,  which  again  falls  into  the  boiling 
mass  below.  Every  part  of  the  apparatus  trembles  un- 
der the  violent  agitation  thus  produced  ;  a  roaring  flame 
rushes  from  the  mouth  of  the  vessel,  and  as  the  process 
advances  it  changes  its  violet  color  to  orange,  and  finally 


THE   POWER  OF  THE  TRAINED  HAND.  167 

to  a  voluminous  pure  white  flame.  The  sparks,  which 
at  first  were  large,  like  those  of  ordinary  foundery  iron, 
change  into  small  hissing  points,  and  these  gradually 
give  way  to  soft  floating  specks  of  bluish  light  as  the 
state  of  malleable  iron  is  approached.  There  is  no 
eruption  of  cinder  as  in  the  early  experiments,  although 
it  is  formed  during  the  process ;  the  improved  shape  of 
the  converter  causes  it  to  be  retained,  and  it  not  only 
acts  beneficially  on  the  metal,  but  it  helps  to  confine  the 
heat,  which  during  the  process  has  rapidly  risen  from 
the  comparatively  low  temperature  of  melted  pig-iron  to 
one  vastly  greater  than  the  highest  known  welding  heats, 
by  which  malleable  iron  only  becomes  sufficiently  soft 
to  be  shaped  by  the  blows  of  the  hammer ;  but  here  it 
becomes  perfectly  fluid,  and  even  rises  so  much  above 
the  melting  point  as  to  admit  of  its  being  poured  from 
the  converter  into  a  founder's  ladle,  and  from  thence 
to  be  transferred  ta  several  successive  moulds."  * 

What  is  the  value  of  this  process?  What  is  the  ex- 
tent of  the  service  rendered  by  Mr.  Bessemer  to  man? 
It  is  estimated  that  in  the  twenty-one  years  first  elapsing 
after  the  successful  working  of  the  Bessemer  process,  the 
production  of  steel  by  it,  notwithstanding  its  necessarily 
slow  progress,  amounted  to  twenty-five  million  tons.  At 
$200  a  ton,  the  alleged  saving  in  cost  as  compared  with 
the  old  process,  this  represents  an  aggregate  saving  of 
$5,000,000,000.  In  1882  the  world's  production  was 
four  million  tons,  which  at  the  rate  named  yields  a 
saving  of  the  enormous  aggregate  of  $800,000,000  in  a 
single  year.  These  sums  seem  almost  fabulous,  especial- 
ly so  since  they  result  from  simply  blowing  air  through 

*  "  The  Creators  of  the  Age  of  Steel,"  p.  71.    By  W.  T.  Jeans. 
New  York  :  Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  1884. 


168  MANUAL  TKAINING. 

crude  melted  iron  for  a  quarter  of  an  hour!  But  the 
radical  character  of  the  change  wrought  in  the  metal  by 
the  air-blowing  process  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  a  steel 
rail  is  worth  as  much  as  twenty  iron  rails.* 

All  the  governments  of  Europe  honored  Mr.  Bessemer 
for  his  great  invention,  some  by  medals  and  orders  of 
merit,  and  others  by  appropriating  without  compensa- 
tion his  process  of  steel-making.  Of  these  latter  Prussia 
stood  in  the  front  rank.  England  alone  stood  aloof. 
"  A  prophet  is  not  without  honor  save  in  his  own  coun- 
try and  among  his  own  kin."  From  1860  to  1872  Eng- 
land continued  to  load  Mr.  Gladstone  and  Mr.  Disraeli 
with  honors,  but  not  until  the  latter  year  did  the  govern- 
ment recognize  Mr.  Bessemer,  when  the  Prince  of  Wales 
presented  him  with  the  Albert  gold  medal,  and  in  1879 
he  was  knighted  by  the  Queen. 

A  comparison  between  the  lives  and  services  to  man 
of  two  of  the  most  distinguished  statesmen  of  England, 
with  the  life  and  services,  to  man,  of  Sir  Henry  Bessemer, 
cannot  fail  to  be  of  great  value  to  every  young  man  who 
possesses  the  power  of  just  discrimination.  But  can  just 
discrimination  be  expected  of  any  young  man  entering 

*  "At  the  Birmingham  meeting  of  the  British  Association  in  1865, 
Sir  Henry  Bessemer  explained  that  at  Chalk  Farm  steel  rails  -were 
laid  down  on  one  side  of  the  line  and  iron  rails  on  the  other,  so  that 
every  engine  and  carriage  there  had  to  pass  over  both  steel  and  iron 
rails  at  the  same  time.  When  the  first  face  was  worn  off  an  iron  rail 
it  was  turned  the  other  way  upward,  and  when  the  second  face  was 
worn  out  it  was  replaced  by  a  new  iron  rail.  When  Sir  Henry  ex- 
hibited one  of  these  steel  rails  at  Birmingham  only  one  face  of  it  was 
nearly  worn  out,  while  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  line  eleven  iron 
rails  had  in  the  same  time  been  worn  out  on  both  faces.  It  thus  ap- 
peared that  one  steel  rail  was  capable  of  doing  the  work  of  twenty- 
three  iron  ones." — "The  Creators  of  the  Age  of  Steel, "p.  93.  By 
W.  T.  Jeans.  New  York:  Charles  Scribuer's  Sons,  1884. 


THE  POWER  OF  THE  TRAINED   HAND.  169 

upon  the  stage  of  active  life  when  such  discrimination 
is  not  possessed  by  the  public  at  large  ?  For  example : 
The  question  being  propounded,  What  is  the  value  of  the 
combined  services  to  man  of  Mr.  Gladstone  and  Mr. 
Disraeli,  as  compared  with  those  of  Sir  Henry  Besse- 
mer? ninety-nine  out  of  a  hundred  men  of  sound  judg- 
ment would  doubtless  say,  "  The  value  of  the  services  of 
the  two  statesmen  is  quite  unimportant,  while  the  value 
of  the  services  of  Mr.  Bessemer  is  enormous,  incalcula- 
ble." But  how  many  of  these  ninety-nine  men  of  sound 
judgment  could  resist  the  fascination  of  the  applause 
accorded  to  the  statesmen  ?  How  many  of  them  would 
have  the  moral  courage  to  educate  their  sons  for  the 
career  of  Mr.  Bessemer  instead  of  for  the  career  of  Mr. 
Disraeli  or  of  Mr.  Gladstone?*  Not  many  in  the  present 
state  of  public  sentiment.  It  will  be  a  great  day  for 
man,  the  day  that  ushers  in  the  dawn  of  more  sober 
views  of  life,  the  day  that  inaugurates  the  era  of  things 
in  the  place  of  words. 

Mr.  Gladstone  stands  for  politics  and  statesmanship  at 
their  best,  and  his  career  is  the  product  of  the  old  system 
of  education  at  its  best.  Mr.  Bessemer  stands  for  science 
and  art  united,  and  his  career  is  the  product  of  the  new 
education. 

*  "If  there  were  two  valleys  in  California  or  Australia  with  two 
different  kinds  of  gravel  in  the  bottom  of  them,  and  in  the  one  stream- 
bed  you  could  dig  up,  occasionally  and  by  good-fortune,  nuggets  of 
gold,  and  in  the  other  stream-bed,  certainly  and  without  hazard,  you 
could  dig  up  little  caskets  containing  talismans  which  gave  length  of 
days  and  peace,  and  alabaster  vases  of  precious  balms  which  were 
better  than  the  Arabian  dervish's  ointment,  and  made  not  only  the 
eyes  to  see,  but  the  mind  to  know  whatever  it  would  —  I  wonder 
in  which  of  the  stream-beds  there  would  be  most  diggers ?" — "Time 
and  Tide,"  p.  100.  By  John  Ruskin,  LL.D.  New  York:  John 
Wiley  &  Sons,  1883. 


170  MANUAL  TKAINING. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE  INVENTORS,  CIVIL  ENGINEERS,  AND  MECHANICS 
OF  ENGLAND,  AND  ENGLISH  PROGRESS. 

A  Trade  is  better  than  a  Profession. — The  Railway,  Telegraph,  and 
Steamship  are  more  Potent  than  the  Lawyer,  Doctor,  and  Priest. — 
Book-makers  writing  the  Lives  of  the  Inventors  of  last  Century. — 
The  Workshop  to  be  the  Scene  of  the  Greatest  Triumphs  of  Man. 
— The  Civil  Engineers  of  England  the  Heroes  of  English  Progress. 
— The  Life  of  James  Brindley,  the  Canal-maker;  his  Struggles  and 
Poverty. — The  Roll  of  Honor. — Mr.  Gladstone's  Significant  Admis- 
sion that  English  Triumphs  in  Science  and  Art  were  won  without 
Government  Aid. — Disregarding  the  Common-sense  of  the  Savage, 
Legislators  have  chosen  to  learn  of  Plato,  who  declared  that  "The 
Useful  Arts  are  Degrading." — How  Improvements  in  the  Arts  have 
been  met  by  Ignorant  Opposition. — The  Power  wielded  by  the 
Mechanic. 

THE  young  man  with  a  mechanical  trade  is  better 
equipped  for  the  battle  of  life  than  the  young  man  with 
a  learned  profession.  The  prizes  may  not  be  so  dazzling, 
but  they  are  more  numerous,  and  they  are  within  reach. 
The  skilled  mechanic,  with  industry  and  prudence,  is  sure 
of  a  cottage,  and  the  cottage  may  grow  into  a  mansion, 
while  the  man  of  letters  struggles  so  often  in  vain  to 
mount  the  steps  of  a  palace.  The  railroad,  the  telegraph, 
and  the  steamship  exert  a  more  potent  influence  upon 
the  destinies  of  mankind  than  the  lawyer,  the  doctor,  and 
the  priest.  The  giants,  steam  and  electricity,  which  bear 
the  great  burdens  of  commerce,  have  to  be  harnessed  to 
enable  them  to  do  their  work ;  and  to  make  this  harness, 
the  furnace,  the  forge,  and  the  shop  are  brought  into 


INVENTORS  AND  MECHANICS  OF  ENGLAND.  171 

requisition.  The  railroad  alone  taxes  to  the  utmost  nearly 
every  department  of  the  useful  arts.  To  the  construc- 
tion of  the  passenger -coach,  for  instance,  more  than  a 
hundred  trades  contribute  the  varied  cunning  and  skill 
of  their  workmanship. 

This  is  the  age  of  steel,  and  lie  who  knows  how  to 
mould  the  king  of  metals  into  puissant  forms  has  his 
hand  nearest  the  rod  of  empire.  "Who  would  not  rather 
be  able  to  construct  a  Corliss  engine  than  learn  the  trick 
of  drawing  a  bill  in  chancery  ? 

There  was  a  time,  not  long  ago,  when  inventors  and 
discoverers  were  little  recognized  and  poorly  compen- 
sated for  their  splendid  achievements.  But  that  time  is 
past.  The  book-makers  of  to-day  are  groping  about  the 
old  shops  where  the  inventors  of  last  century  worked, 
and  the  cottages  where  they  lived,  in  order  to  tell  the 
simple  story  of  their  lives,  and  write  their  names  in  the 
temple  of  fame.  Huntsman,  who  emerged  from  long 
seclusion  over  the  furnace  and  crucible,  and  presented 
to  his  fellow -workmen  a  piece  of  steel  which  rivalled 
that  of  old  Damascus,  and  drove  from  the  British  mar- 
kets all  other  steels — how  resplendent  his  name  is  now ! 
How  every  incident  in  the  life  of  Watt  is  sought  for — 
his  struggles,  his  disappointments,  and  his  final  success ! 
And  so  of  Mushet,  Neilson,  Bramah,  Maudslay,  Clement 
Murray,  Nasmyth,  Stephenson,  and  Fulton.  When  Watt 
had  devised  his  engine  he  found  no  workmen  expert 
enough  to  make  it.  Then  Maudslay,  Clement,  and  Mur- 
ray invented  automatic  iron  hands  and  fingers,  and  en- 
dowed them  with  almost  human  intelligence,  and  far  more 
than  human  precision,  and  Watt's  difficulty  was  removed. 

The  greasy  mechanics  did  more  to  hasten  the  world's 
progress  in  a  century — 1740  to  1840 — than  had  been  ac- 


172  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

complished  up  to  that  time  by  all  the  statesmen  of  all 
the  dead  ages.  But  those  heroes  of  the  workshop  had 
none  of  the  opportunities  afforded  by  the  manual  train- 
ing school  of  the  present  age.  They  toiled  many  hours 
each  day  for  a  shilling  or  two,  and  lived  in  stuffy  hovels 
and  puzzled  over  the  a  b  c  of  mechanics  by  the  light  of 
a  tallow-candle.  Some  of  them  gained  fortunes,  while 
others  were  robbed  of  the  fruits  of  genius,  and  slept  in 
unknown  graves,  but  all  their  names  are  treasured  and 
honored  now.  The  world  moves,  and  in  this  age  it 
moves  always  towards  a  higher  appreciation  of  the  value 
of  the  useful  arts.  This  country  is  destined  to  become 
a  vast  workshop,  and  in  this  workshop  the  best  energies, 
the  strongest  vital  forces  of  the  American  people  are 
eventually  to  be  exerted.  How  necessary,  then,  to  edu- 
cate the  hands  as  well  as  the  brain  of  the  youth  of  the 
country. 

Mr.  Smiles,  in  his  "  Lives  of  the  Engineers,"  has  shown 
us  the  true  springs  of  English  greatness.  In  telling  the 
story  of  the  struggles  and  triumphs  of  the  canal-makers, 
the  bridge-builders,  the  coal-miners,  the  millwrights,  the 
road-makers,  the  harbor  and  dock  makers,  the  ship-build- 
ers, the  iron  and  steel  makers,  and  the  railway-builders — 
in  telling  this  story  of  persistence,  of  nerve,  and  "  pluck," 
he  has  sketched  the  career  of  the  real  heroes  of  English 
progress.  A  brief  sketch  of  the  life  of  James  Brindley 
will  serve  to  show  how  these  noble  men  wrought,  how 
they  suffered,  and  how  they  conquered. 

James  Brindley  was  born  in  1716.  His  parents  were 
poor.  His  father  was  a  ne'er-do-well.  His  mother  taught 
him  to  be  honest  and  industrious.  James  worked  as  a 
common  laborer  till  he  was  seventeen  years  of  age.  In 
1733  he  became  a  millwright's  apprentice  —  bound  for 


1NVENTOKS  AND  MECHANICS  OF  ENGLAND.          173 

seven  years.  He  was  a  dull  boy,  learning  slowly,  but 
before  the  end  of  his  "  bound  "  term  he  became  the  best 
workman  in  the  neighborhood.  He  helped  the  now  cel- 
ebrated Wedgwoods  out  of  a  difficulty  by  inventing  and 
constructing  flint -mills  for  their  works.  He  invented 
and  constructed  pumps  for  clearing  the  Clifton  coal- 
mines of  water — an  entirely  new  device  that  opened  coal 
chambers  which  had  long  been  completely  drowned  out. 
His  compensation  for  this  class  of  work — the  work  of 
genius — was  two  shillings  a  day ! 

In  1755  he  built  a  silk-mill,  in  which  he  made  several 
important  improvements  in  machinery,  etc.  But  this 
man,  who  possessed  inventive  genius  of  a  high  order  and 
large  executive  ability,  could  neither  write  legibly  nor 
spell  correctly,  and  his  charge  for  almost  inestimable  serv- 
ices was  still,  in  1757,  only  two  to  four  shillings  a  day. 
His  struggles  to  improve  the  steam-engine  form  a  curious 
chapter  in  the  story  of  his  life.  It  was  to  him  that  the 
Duke  of  Bridgewater  owed  his  success  in  canal-making. 

The  duke  was  born  in  1736.  He  was  a  weak  and  sick- 
ly child,  his  mental  capacity  being  apparently  defective 
to  a  degree  sufficient  to  debar  him  from  his  inheritance 
of  the  family  title  and  estates.  An  affair  of  the  heart 
which  resulted  unfavorably  rendered  him  morose,  and 
changed  his  whole  course  of  life.  He  abruptly  quitted 
the  race-track,  where  he  had  condescended  even  to  play 
the  role  of  "jockey,"  and  turned  his  attention  to  the  im- 
provement of  his  estates.  .They  contained  coal  depos- 
its, which  he  undertook  to  develop  through  cheapening 
transportation,  and  Brindley  became  his  engineer.  His 
first  canal,  consisting  largely  of  aqueducts,  was  called 
"Brindley's  castle  in  the  air,"  and  his  "river  hung  in 
the  air."  It  was  this  "  river  hung  in  the  air  " — the  first 


174  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

English  canal — that  made  the  Manchester  of  to-day  pos- 
sible. Another  canal  enterprise  of  the  duke  cost  more 
than  a  million  dollars — that  connecting  Liverpool  with 
Manchester.  This  latter  canal  yielded  £80,000  per  an- 
num income,  and  it  was  constructed  by  Brindley  at  a 
salary  of  3s.  Qd.  a  day ! 

Brindley  was  obstinate,  and  often  quarrelled  with  his 
employer  about  the  methods  of  construction  of  great 
works ;  and  what  is  more,  the  duke  always  submitted. 
He  humbly  submitted  to  every  demand  made  by  his 
engineer  except  a  demand  for  compensation.  Brindley's 
"wage"  rate  during  the  many  years  occupied  in  the 
duke's  great  canal  enterprises  was  3s.  Qd.  per  day.  This, 
at  all  events,  is  the  price  named  by  Smiles  in  his  life 
of  Brindley.  In  a  note  to  the  work  it  is,  however,  stated 
that  his  stipulated  pay  was  a  guinea  a  day.  It  is  agreed 
on  all  hands,  nevertheless,  that  whatever  the  rate  agreed 
upon  was,  Brindley  was  not  paid,  and  that  his  heirs  were 
begging  unsuccessfully  for  his  just  dues  long  after  his 
death.  In  a  word,  Brindley's  honor  as  an  engineer  being 
at  stake,  and  it  being  dearer  to  him  than  any  money 
consideration,  he  worked  for  nothing  rather  than  allow 
the  enterprise  to  fail.  And  the  duke  was  parsimonious 
enough  to  take  the  engineer's  services  for  nothing,  and 
his  heirs  were  mean  enough  to  refuse  payment  for  such 
services  when  demanded  by  his  widow. 

In  a  literary  point  of  view  Brindley  was  ignorant,  but 
in  no  other  respect.  This  was  said  of  him  by  one  of  his 
contemporaries : 

"Mr.  Brindley  is  one  of  those  great  geniuses  whom 
Nature  sometimes  rears  by  her  own  force,  and  brings  to 
maturity  without  the  necessity  of  cultivation.  His  whole 
plan  is  admirable,  and  so  well  calculated  that  he  is  never 


INVENTORS  AND  MECHANICS   OF  ENGLAND.          175 

at  a  loss ;  for  if  any  difficulty  arises  he  removes  it  with  a 
facility  which  appears  so  much  like  inspiration  that  you 
would  think  Minerva  was  at  his  fingers'  ends."* 

The  life  of  Brindley  is  typical  of  a  score  of  biogra- 
phies presented  in  the  "  Lives  of  the  Engineers,"  among 
which  the  following  are  especially  worthy  of  mention: 
"William  Edwards,  John  Metcalf,  John  Perry,  Sir  Hugh 
Myddelton,  Cornelius  Yermuyden,  Andrew  Yarranton,f 
Andrew  Meikle,  John  Rennie,  John  Smeaton,  Thomas 
Telford,  William  Murdock,  Dr.  D.  Papin,  Thomas  Savery, 
Dud  Dudley,  Matthew  Boulton,  and  William  Symington. 
These,  and  their  natural  coadjutors,  the  discoverers  of  new 
forces  in  nature  and  the  inventors  of  new  things  in  art,  the 
iron-workers  and  tool-makers — these  are  the  great  names 
in  English  history.  They  are  the  names  without  which 
there  would  have  been  no  English  history  worth  writing. 
Mr.  Gladstone  once  said  of  them,  naming  Brindley,  Met- 
calf, Smeaton,  Eennie,  and  Telford,  "These  men  who 
have  now  become  famous  among  us  had  no  mechanics' 
institutes,  no  libraries,  no  classes,  no  examinations  to 
cheer  them  on  their  way.  In  the  greatest  poverty,  diffi- 
culties, and  discouragements  their  energies  were  found 
sufficient  for  their  work,  and  they  have  written  their 
names  in  a  distinguished  page  of  the  history  of  their 
country." 


*  "Lives  of  the  Engineers."  By  Samuel  Smiles.  London:  John 
Murray,  1862.  Vol.  I.,  "Life  of  James  Brindley." 

f  "He  was  the  founder  of  English  political  economy,  the  first  man 
in  England  who  saw  and  said  that  peace  is  better  than  war,  that  trade 
is  better  than  plunder,  that  honest  industry  is  better  than  martial 
greatness,  and  that  the  best  occupation  of  a  government  is  to  secure 
prosperity  at  home,  and  let  other  nations  alone." — "Elements  of  Po 
litical  Science."  By  Patrick  Edward  Dove.  Edinburgh:  1854. 


176  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

The  admission  of  Mr.  Gladstone  that  the  great  achieve- 
ments of  these  heroes  of  invention  and  discovery  were 
won  without  any  aid  whatever,  either  from  the  govern- 
ment or  the  people  of  England,  is  a  pregnant  fact.  It  is 
the  key-note  of  this  work,  the  reason  why  it  is  written 
and  published. 

The  neglect  of  the  useful  arts  by  all  the  governments 
of  the  world,  from  the  dawn  of  civilization  down  to  the 
present  time,  is  an  impeachment  of  the  common-sense  of 
mankind  as  shown  in  the  conduct  of  public  affairs.  The 
civilized  man  might  have  learned  wisdom  from  the  sav- 
age, who  is  taught  to  fight,  to  hunt,  and  to  fish,  the  brain, 
the  hand,  and  the  eye  being  trained  simultaneously.  But 
he  chose  to  learn  of  Plato,  who  in  the  "Kepublic"  says  to 
Glaucon,  "  All  the  useful  arts,  I  believe,  we  thought  de- 
grading." And  further  in  the  same  work:  "We  shall 
tell  our  people,  in  mythical  language,  you  are  doubtless 
all  brethren  as  many  as  inhabit  the  city,  but  the  God 
who  created  you,  mixed  gold  in  the  composition  of  such 
of  you  as  are  qualified  to  rule,  which  gives  them  the 
highest  value,  while  in  the  auxiliaries  he  made  silver  an 
ingredient,  assigning  iron  and  copper  to  the  cultivators  of 
the  soil  and  the  other  workmen.  Therefore,  inasmuch  as 
you  are  all  related  to  one  another,  although  your  children 
will  generally  resemble  their  parents,  yet  sometimes  a 
golden  parent  will  produce  a  silver  child,  and  a  silver 
parent  a  golden  child,  and  so  on,  each  producing  any. 
The  rulers,  therefore,  have  received  this  in  charge  first 
and  above  all  from  the  gods,  to  observe  nothing  more 
closely,  in  their  character  of  vigilant  guardians,  than  the 
children  that  are  born,  to  see  which  of  these  metals  en- 
ters into  the  composition  of  their  souls ;  and  if  a  child 
be  born  in  their  class  with  an  alloy  of  copper  or  iron, 


INVENTORS  AND  MECHANICS   OF  ENGLAND.          177 

they  are  to  have  no  manner  of  pity  upon  it,  but  giving 
it  the  value  that  belongs  to  its  nature,  they  are  to  thrust 
it  away  into  the  class  of  artisans  or  agriculturists.  And 
if,  again,  among  these  a  child  be  born  with  an  admixture 
of  gold  or  silver,  when  they  have  assayed  it  they  are  to 
raise  it  either  to  the  class  of  guardians  or  to  that  of  aux- 
iliaries, because  there  is  an  oracle  which  declares  that 
the  city  shall  then  perish  when  it  is  guarded  by  iron  or 
copper."* 

So  ingrained  in  the  public  mind  has  this  contempt  for 
the  artisan  and  laborer  become  in  the  course  of  ages,  that 
notwithstanding  the  fact  of  the  admitted  kingship  of 
iron  among  metals,  and  notwithstanding  the  fact  that 
without  iron  the  world  would  almost  sink  into  a  state  of 
barbarism,  still  the  opposition  to  the  introduction  of  tool 
practice  into  the  public  schools  is  violent,  and  most  vio- 
lent among  those  classes  who  would  be  most  benefited 
by  it.  During  the  pendency  of  a  bill  in  the  Massachu- 
setts Assembly  in  1883,  providing  for  the  admission  of 
manual  training  to  the  public-school  curriculum,  an  op- 
ponent of  the  measure  said :  "  The  introduction  of  the 
use  of  tools  is  only  another  attempt  to  deprive  the  poor- 
er classes  of  a  good  education.  It  is  simply  an  attempt 
to  overload  the  course  of  studies  in  the  schools  so  that 
children  shall  not  learn  anything ;  so  that  the  poor  may 
be  made  poorer,  while  the  children  of  the  rich  having  a 
good  time  in  the  public  schools  may  have  their  thought 
and  health  preserved  for  higher  or  special  education." 

This  is  a  repetition  of  the  old  answer  of  the  Inquisition 
to  Galileo  upon  the  announcement  and  defence  of  his 


*  "The  Republic  of  Plato,"  p.  114.     London:  Macmillan  &  Co., 
1881. 


178  MANUAL   TRAINING. 

great  discovery.  He  was  summoned  to  Rome,  and  "  ac- 
cused of  having  taught  that  the  earth  moves,  that  the 
sun  is  stationary,  and  of  having  attempted  to  reconcile 
these  doctrines  with  the  Scriptures."  Bruno  had  been 
driven  to  and  fro  over  the  face  of  the  civilized  world, 
and  finally  burned  in  the  year  1600  for  teaching  the  sys- 
tem of  Copernicus.  Having  the  fear  of  Bruno's  fate  be- 
fore his  eyes,  Galileo  recanted,  and  promised  neither  to 
publish  nor  defend  his  great  discoveries.  But  his  love 
of  science  overcame  his  fear  of  oppression,  and  in  1632 
he  published  his  "  System  of  the  World."  Again  he 
was  summoned  before  the  Inquisition,  which  was  des- 
tined forever  after  to  torment  and  persecute  him.  He 
was  driven  to  his  knees  before  the  cardinals,  consigned 
to  prison,  and  tortured  to  blindness.  After  his  death  in 
prison  at  the  age  of  seventy-seven  years,  his  right  to  make 
a  will  was  disputed,  his  body  was  denied  burial  in  con- 
secrated ground,  and  his  friends  were  prohibited  the  priv- 
ilege of  raising  a  monument  to  his  memory  in  the  Church 
of  Santa  Croce  in  Florence. 

Eighteen  hundred  years  ago  a  Roman  emperor  refused 
to  sanction  the  use  of  improved  machinery  in  the  prose- 
cution of  a  great  public  work,  on  the  ground  that  it 
would  deprive  the  poor  of  employment. 

In  1663  a  Dutchman  erected  a  saw-mill  in  England, 
but  the  hostility  of  the  workmen  compelled  its  abandon- 
ment. More  than  a  hundred  years  elapsed  before  the 
second  saw-mill  was  put  in  operation  in  England,  and 
that  was  destroyed  by  hand-sawyers. 

The  Flemish  weavers  who  introduced  improved  weav- 
ing machinery  into  England  in  the  seventeenth  century 
were  met  by  protests.  One  of  these  protests,  addressed 
to  Parliament,  represented  that  the  Flemish  weavers  had 


INVENTORS  AND  MECHANICS  OF  ENGLAND.          179 

"  made  so  bould  as  to  devise  engines  for  working  of  tape, 
lace,  ribbin,  and  such  like,  wherein  one  man  doth  more 
among  them  than  seven  Englishe  men  can  doe,  so  as 
their  cheap  sale  of  commodities  beggereth  all  our  Eng- 
lishe artificers  of  that  trade  and  enricheth  them." 

A  little  more  than  a  hundred  years  ago,  in  England, 
when  the  Sankey  Canal,  six  miles  long,  was  authorized, 
it  was  upon  the  express  condition  that  the  boats  plying 
upon  it  should  be  drawn  by  men  only. 

Illustrations  of  the  vis  inertia  of  ignorance  might  be 
multiplied  indefinitely.  Ignorance  reverences  the  past. 
Ignorance  never  doubts.  Ignorance  is  content ;  perfect- 
ly satisfied  with  its  own  knowledge,  if  the  paradox  may 
be  allowed,  it  never  seeks  to  increase  it.  But  it  is  sus- 
picious. In  every  effort  to  enlighten  it  discovers  a  con- 
spiracy to  undermine.  Incapable  of  the  intellectual  ef- 
fort of  inquiry,  it  stagnates,  and  regards  as  a  deadly  enemy 
those  who  seek  to  disturb  the  serenity  of  its  muddy  pool. 

When  labor  was  only  another  name  for  a  state  of  slav- 
ery, to  teach  men  to  labor  skilfully  was  merely  to  raise 
them  to  a  little  higher  grade  of  servitude.  Hence  it  is 
only  at  a  very  recent  period  that  it  has  occurred  to  man- 
kind to  teach  skilled  labor  in  the  schools.  All  educa- 
tional systems,  our  own  among  the  rest,  seem  to  have 
been  intended  to  make  lawyers,  doctors,  priests,  states- 
men, litterateurs,  poets.  But  this  is  the  age  of  steel,  the 
age  of  machines  and  machinery.  Tremendous  forces  in 
nature  have  been  discovered  and  utilized,  and  these  dis- 
coveries and  their  utilization  have  so  multiplied  vast  en- 
terprises that  the  importance  of  the  more  ornamental 
branches  of  learning  is  dwarfed  in  their  presence.  This 
is  the  practical  age,  and  an  educational  system  which  is 
not  practical  is  nothing.  We  shall  still  have  our  Tenny- 

8* 


180  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

sons,  and  our  Longfellows,  and  our  doctors  of  abstract 
philosophy ;  but  there  is  little  time  to  sentimentalize  with 
the  poets  or  speculate  with  the  philosophers.  There  is 
work  to  do.  The  mine  is  to  be  explored  and  its  treasures 
brought  to  the  surface;  more  and  more  powerful  ma- 
chines are  to  be  constructed  to  bear  the  burdens  of  com- 
merce ;  new  elements  of  force  are  to  be  discovered  and 
applied  to  the  constantly  increasing  wants  of  mankind.* 

On  the  subject  of  the  demand  for  a  more  comprehen- 
sive educational  system,  Col.  Augustus  Jacobson  says, 
with  great  force,  "Youth  is  the  expensive  period  of 
man's  existence.  Youth  produces  nothing  and  eats  all 
the  time.  If  the  youth  is  not  trained  there  can  hardly 
be  a  profit  to  mankind  on  his  existence.  As  mankind  is 
liable  for,  and  bound  to  pay,  his  expenses,  he  should  be 
so  trained  that  he  may  repay  them.  He  can  only  become 
a  profitable  investment  by  training.  If  he  is  left  un- 
skilled, the  money  spent  on  him  is  wasted.  There  is 
no  profit  on  a  whole  generation  of  Spaniards  or  Turks. 
Mankind  should  be  wise  enough  to  reap  the  profit  there 
always  is  in  finishing  raw  material,  by  making  human 
raw  material  into  a  highly  finished  product." 

There  are  millions  of  "  bright,  capable "  little  human 
beings  in  the  schools  of  the  United  States,  receiving, 

*  "  To  know  the  '  use '  either  of  land  or  tools  you  must  know  what 
useful  things  can  be  grown  from  the  one  and  made  with  the  other. 
And  therefore  to  know  what  is  useful,  and  what  useless,  and  be  skil- 
ful to  provide  the  one,  and  wise  to  scorn  the  other,  is  the  first  need 
for  all  industrious  men.  Wherefore,  I  propose  that  schools  should 
be  established  wherein  the  use  of  land  and  tools  shall  be  taught  con- 
clusively— in  other  words,  the  sciences  of  agriculture  (with  associated 
river  and  sea  culture),  and  the  noble  arts  and  exercises  of  humanity. — 
"Fors  Clavigera,"  p.  302.  Part.  III.  By  John  Ruskin,  LL.D.  New 
York:  John  Wiley  &  Sons,  1881. 


INVENTORS  AND  MECHANICS  OF  ENGLAND.          181 

doubtless,  excellent  intellectual  or  mental  training.  But 
they  are  not  being  trained  for  the  actual  duties  of  life  as 
the  savage  child  is  taught  to  fight,  to  fish,  and  to  hunt. 
They  are  not  taught  to  labor  with  their  hands,  either 
skilfully  or  unskilfully.  They  are  not  given  instruction 
in  any  department  of  the  useful  arts,  notwithstanding 
the  fact  that  in  the  case  of  a  vast  majority  of  them  the 
alternative  of  earning  their  bread  by  the  labor  of  their 
unskilled  hands,  or  resorting  to  their  untrained  wits  for 
a  support,  will  be  presented  immediately  on  their  en- 
trance upon  the  stage  of  active  life.  The  apprentice 
system  gave  skilled  mechanics  to  England,  and  her  splen- 
did manufacturing  prosperity  is  the  result.  The  trained 
English  apprentice  became  an  inventor,  and  his  inven- 
tions and  art  discoveries  studded  the  island  with  workshops 
filled  with  automatic  product-multiplying  machinery. 

The  savage  of  Australia  in  Captain  Cook's  time  could 
kill  a  pigeon  with  a  spear  at  thirty  yards,  but  he  couldn't 
count  the  fingers  on  his  right  hand.  The  Southern  Es- 
quimau turns  a  somersault  in  the  water  in  his  boat  with 
ease.  But  his  more  Northern  brother  has  no  canoe,  and 
is  ignorant  of  the  existence  of  a  boat ;  he  has  no  use  for 
a  boat,  because  the  sea  in  the  latitude  of  his  home  is 
frozen  the  entire  year.  The  savage  is  taught  what  he 
needs  to  know  in  his  condition,  and  is  taught  nothing 
else ;  hence  his  skill  in  the  few  avocations  he  pursues. 

The  civilized  boy  in  school  is  taught  many  theories, 
but  is  not  required  to  put  any  of  them  in  practice ;  hence 
he  enters  upon  the  serious  duties  of  life  unprepared  to 
discharge  any  of  them.*  It  may  be  said  that  he  is  in 

*  Discussion  of  the  subject  of  technical  education  at  a  meeting  of 
the  Society  of  Arts,  London,  England,  1885. 
Dr.  Gladstone,  F.R.S. :   "It  should  be  their  aim  in  [elementary 


182  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

real  danger  of  the  penitentiary  until  he  learns  a  profes- 
sion or  a  trade.  "Of  four  hundred  and  eighty -seven 
convicts  consigned  to  the  State  Prison  for  the  Eastern  Dis- 
trict of  Pennsylvania  in  1879,  five-sixths  had  attended  pub- 
lic schools,  and  the  same  number  were  without  trades." 
It  is  noticeable  also  that  during  the  same  period  "not 
five  were  received  who  were  what  are  called  mechanics." 
In  the  penitentiary  of  the  State  of  Illinois  four  out  of 
five  of  the  convicts  have  no  handicraft.  The  fact  that 
the  skilled  workman  is  far  more  likely  than  the  common 
laborer  to  keep  out  of  the  penitentiary  is  a  powerful 
argument  in  favor  of  joining  manual  training  to  the 
mental  exercises  of  our  common  schools. 

The  general  adoption  of  a  comprehensive  system  of 
mechanical  education  in  the  public  schools  would  quickly 
dispel  the  unworthy  prejudice  against  labor  which  taints 
the  minds  of  the  youth  of  the  country.  The  splendid 
career  which  this  age  opens  to  the  educated  mechanic 
would  become  clear  to  the  vision  of  every  boy  in  the 
land,  and  he  would  see,  in  the  tools  he  was  taught  to 

schools]  to  give  such  a  notion  of  the  value  of  materials  and  the  use 
of  tools  as  could  afterwards  be  turned  to  use  in  any  required  direc- 
tion. There  were  two  great  difficulties  in  the  way  of  doing  this. 
The  first  and  greatest  was  the  inveterate  notion  that  education  con- 
sisted of  book-learning.  .  .  .  Another  difficulty  was  the  ignorance  of 
teachers  in  this  respect.  If  an  endeavor  were  made  to  introduce 
some  knowledge  of  science  into  schools,  they  generally  found  that 
the  teachers  had  some  kind  of  theoretical  knowledge,  but  it  had  been 
obtained  mainly  f  rotn  books ;  and  what  was  chiefly  wanted  was  that 
things  should  be  taught  as  well  as  words  and  before  words." 

Prof.  Guthrie,  F.R.8. :  "This  method  of  bringing  the  hand  and 
the  mind  to  work  together  really  lay  at  the  basis  of  all  true  tech- 
nical instruction;  where  the  mind  alone  was  employed  the  knowl- 
edge acquired  passed  away,  but  when  the  mind  and  the  hand  had 
been  educated  together  the  knowledge  was  never  forgotten." 


INVENTORS  AND   MECHANICS  OF  ENGLAND.          183 

handle,  the  key  not  only  to  fair  success,  but  to  wealth 
and  fame.  Professor  Thurston,  President  of  the  Ameri- 
can Society  of  Mechanical  Engineers,  thus  depicts  the 
tremendous  power  wielded  by  the  mechanic : 

"  The  class  of  men  from  whose  ranks  the  membership 
of  this  society  is  principally  drawn  direct  the  labors  of 
Nearly  three  millions  of  prosperous  people  in  three  hun- 
dred thousand  mills,  with  $2,500,000,000  capital ;  they 
direct  the  payment  of  more  than  $1,000,000,000  in  annual 
"svages ;  the  consumption  of  $3,000,000,000  worth  of  raw 
material,  and  the  output  of  $5,000,000,000  worth  of  man- 
ufactured products.  Fifty  thousand  steam-engines,  and 
more  than  as  many  water-wheels,  at  their  command  turn 
the  machinery  of  these  hundreds  of  thousands  of  work- 
shops that  everywhere  dot  our  land,  giving  the  strength 
of  three  million  horses  night  or  day."* 

*  Inaugural  address,  as  President  of  the  American  Society  of  En- 
gineers, New  York,  November  4, 1880. 


184  MANUAL  TRAINING. 


CHAPTER  XVH. 
POWER  OF  STEAM  AND  CONTEMPT  OP  ARTISANS. 

A  few  Million  People  now  wield  twice  as  much  Industrial  Power  as 
all  the  People  on  the  Globe  exerted  a  Hundred  Years  ago. — A 
Revolution  wrought,  not  by  the  Schools  and  Colleges,  but  by  the 
Mechanic. — The  Union  between  Science  and  Art  prevented  by  the 
Speculative  Philosophy  of  the  Middle  Ages. — Statesmen,  Lawyers, 
Litterateurs,  Poets,  and  Artists  more  highly  esteemed  than  Civil 
Engineers,  Mechanics,  and  Artisans. — The  Refugee  Artisan  a  Pow- 
er in  England,  the  Refugee  Politician  worthless. — Prejudice  against 
the  Artisan  Class  shown  by  Mr.  Galton  in  his  Work  on  "  Hereditary 
Genius." — The  Influence  of  Slavery:  it  has  lasted  Thousands  of 
Years,  and  still  Survives. 

AVnAT  the  civil  engineers  and  mechanics  of  England 
have  done  for  that  country  the  same  classes  here  have 
done  for  America.  It  is  by  these  classes  that  all  civilized 
countries  have  been  made  prosperous  and  great.  And 
the  agent  through  which  the  power  of  man  has  been 
augmented  a  thousand-fold  is  steam.  "In  the  manufact- 
ures of  Great  Britain  alone,  the  power  which  steam  ex- 
erts is  estimated  to  be  equal  to  the  manual  labor  of  four 
hundred  millions  of  men,  or  more  than  double  the  num- 
ber of  males  supposed  to  inhabit  the  globe."*  This  is  the 
most  significant  fact  of  all  time,  namely,  that  a  few  mill- 
ions of  people  in  a  small  island  now  wield  twice  as  much 
industrial  power  as  all  the  people  on  the  globe  exerted 
one  hundred  years  ago.  And  it  is  a  fact  of  the  utmost 


*  "Brief  Biographies:  James  "Watt,"  p.  1.    By  Samuel  Smiles. 
Chicago :  Belford,  Clark  &  Co.,  1883. 


POWER  OF  STEAM  AND   CONTEMPT  OF  ARTISANS.    185 

significance  that  the  public  educational  institutions  of 
England  contributed  scarcely  anything  to  this  industrial 
revolution,  whose  influence  now  comprehends  all  civilized 
countries.  The  men  by  whom  it  was  wrought  came  not 
from  the  classic  shades  of  the  universities,  but  from  the 
foundery,  the  forge,  and  the  machine-shop.  There  has 
been  very  little  change  in  educational  methods  since  the 
time  when  Bacon  said,  "  They  learn  nothing  at  the  univer- 
sities but  to  believe."  lie  proposed  that  a  college  be  es- 
tablished and  devoted  to  the  discovery  of  new  truth.  No 
such  college  has,  however,  been  established,  but  many  new 
truths  have  been  discovered.  Suppose  all  the  universities 
of  England,  of  the  United  States,  and  of  all  other  highly 
civilized  countries  had,  from  the  time  of  Bacon,  been 
conformed  to  his  ideas,  and  devoted  to  the  discovery  of 
new  truths?  Such  a  course  would  have  united  science 
and  art,  and  insured  vastly  greater  progress,  no  doubt, 
than  that  which  has  actually  taken  place.  The  union  of 
science  with  art  has  thus  far  been  rendered  impossible 
by  reason  of  the  wide  prevalence  of  purely  speculative 
views.  The  speculative  philosophy  of  the  Middle  Ages 
still  projects  its  baleful  influence  over  our  institutions  of 
learning.  Abstract  ideas  are  still  regarded  as  of  more 
vital  importance  than  things.  Statesmen,  lawyers,  litte- 
rateurs, poets,  and  artists  are  more  highly  esteemed  than 
civil  engineers,  machinists,  and  artisans.  Mr.  Smiles,  in 
his  excellent  work  on  the  Huguenots,  has  shown  that 
England  owes  to  the  French  and  the  Flemish  immigrants 
"  almost  all  her  industrial  arts  and  very  much  of  the  most 
valuable  life-blood  of  her  modern  race."45"  Commenting 

*  "In  short,  "wherever  the  refugees  settled  they  acted  as  so  many 
missionaries  of  skilled  work,  exhibiting  the  best  practical  examples  of 
diligence,  industry,  and  thrift,  and  teaching  the  English  people  in  the 


186  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

upon  this  fact  in  his  work  on  "  Hereditary  Genius,"  Mr. 
Francis  Galton  says, 

"  There  has  been  another  emigration  from  France  of 
not  unequal  magnitude,  but  followed  by  very  different  re- 
sults, namely,  that  of  the  revolution  of  1789.  It  is  most 
instructive  to  contrast  the  effects  of  the  two.  The  Prot- 
estant emigrants  were  able  men,  and  have  profoundly 
influenced  for  good  both  our  breed  and  our  history ;  on 
the  other  hand,  the  political  refugees  had  but  poor  aver- 
age stamina,  and  have  left  scarcely  any  traces  behind 
them."* 

This  is  the  testimony  of  a  distinguished  student  of 
biology  ;  and  it  is  to  the  effect  that  the  refugee  artisan  is 
of  immense  value  to  the  country  where  he  finds  an  asy- 
lum, while  the  refugee  politician  is  of  no  value  at  all. 
We  should  naturally  say,  our  author  having  made  this 
important  discovery  will  make  much  of  it.  First  of  all, 
he  will  deduce  the  conclusion  that  if  the  refugee  politi- 
cian is  of  no  value  to  the  country  where  he  finds  an  asy- 
lum, the  home  politician  is  an  equally  unimportant  factor 
in  the  social  problem.  Then  he  will  make  an  exhaustive 
study  of  the  industrial  class  as  the  chief  basis  of  his  prop- 
ositions and  speculations  on  the  subject  of  the  science  of 
life.  Not  at  all.  Mr.  Galton,  in  his  work  on  "  Hered- 
itary Genius,"  offers  another  striking  illustration  of  the 
repressive  force  of  habit  and  the  influence  of  popular 
prejudice.  In  his  classifications  of  men  according  to 

most  effective  manner  the  beginnings  of  those  various  industrial  arts 
in  which  they  have  since  acquired  so  much  distinction  and  wealth." — 
"The  Huguenots,"  p.  107.  By  Samuel  Smiles.  New  York:  Har- 
per &  Brothers,  1867. 

*  "Hereditary  Genius,"  p.  360.     By  Francis  Galton,  F.R.S.,  etc. 
New  York:  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  1880. 


POWER  OF  STEAM   AND   CONTEMPT  OF  ARTISANS.    187 

their  professions,  with  a  view  to  the  inquiry  whether 
"genius,  talent,  or  whatever  we  term  great  mental  ca- 
pacity, follows  the  law  of  organic  transmission — runs  in 
families,  and  is  an  affair  of  blood  and  breed" — in  such 
classifications  Mr.  Galton  forgets  for  the  time  being  that 
there  is  an  industrial  class.  He  runs  through  the  entire 
social  scale,  from  "  the  judges  of  England  between  1660 
and  1865,"  not  omitting  Lord  Jeffreys,  down  through 
statesmen,  commanders,  literary  men,  poets,  musicians, 
men  of  science,  painters,  divines,  the  boys  in  Cambridge, 
oarsmen,  and  wrestlers  of  the  North  Country,  but  has 
no  word  to  say  of  the  civil  engineers,  or  of  the  invent- 
ors—  those  immortal  men  whose  monuments  in  stone 
and  iron  exist  in  every  corner  of  England. 

Buckles's  caustic  remark,  "the  most  valuable  addi- 
tions made  to  legislation  have  been  enactments  destruc- 
tive of  preceding  legislation,  and  the  best  laws  which 
have  been  passed  have  been  those  in  which  some  former 
laws  have  been  repealed,"  does  not  apply  to  the  works 
of  the  civil  engineers,  inventors,  and  mechanics  of  Eng- 
land or  of  any  other  country.  Their  works  live  after 
them  and  never  fail  to  reflect  honor  upon  them.  The 
"acts"  of  the  inventor  may  be  amended  but  they  are 
never  repealed.  Each  inventive  step,  however  short  and 
apparently  unimportant,  constitutes  a  substantial  link  in 
the  chain  of  progress;  and  it  is  a  substantial  link,  be- 
cause it  invariably  contains  a  hint  of  the  next  sequen- 
tial step. 

Mr.  Galton  is  an  original  thinker  of  great  power,  and 
an  untiring  investigator.  In  contrasting  the  politician 
with  the  artisan  he  discriminates  admirably.  He  finds 
that  the  politician  is  of  no  value,  practically,  to  the  com- 
munity, while  the  artisan  is  of  almost  inestimable  value ; 


188  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

and  tins  conclusion  he  states  curtly,  without  appearing  to 
care  a  rash  for  the  public  sentiment  which  reverences 
politics  and  so-called  statesmanship.  But  when  he  "  makes 
up  his  jewels,"  so  to  speak,  on  the  subject  of  "  hereditary 
genius,"  Mr.  Galton,  as  already  remarked,  forgets  that  it 
is  worth  while  to  consider  the  class  of  men  who  in  the 
last  hundred  years  have  literally  almost  created  a  new 
world.  Why  is  this  ?  The  late  Mr.  Horace  Mann  an- 
swered the  question  long  ago,  and  he  answered  it  so  well 
that  his  answer  is  here  reproduced  in  extenso :  "  Man- 
kind had  made  great  advances  in  astronomy,  in  geome- 
try, and  other  mathematical  sciences,  in  the  writing  of 
history,  in  oratory  and  in  poetry,  in  painting  and  in 
sculpture,  and  in  those  kinds  of  architecture  which  may 
be  called  regal  or  religious,  centuries  before  the  great 
mechanical  discoveries  and  inventions  which  now  bless 
the  world  were  brought  to  light ;  and  the  question  has 
often  forced  itself  upon  reflecting  minds  why  there  was 
this  preposterousness,  this  inversion  of  what  would  ap- 
pear to  be  the  natural  order  of  progress  ?  Why  was  it, 
for  instance,  that  men  should  have  learned  the  courses 
of  the  stars  and  the  revolution  of  the  planets  before  they 
found  out  how  to  make  a  good  wagon-wheel  ?  Why  was 
it  that  they  built  the  Parthenon  and  the  Coliseum  be- 
fore they  knew  how  to  construct  a  comfortable,  healthful 
dwelling-house?  Why  did  they  build  the  Roman  aque- 
ducts before  they  framed  a  saw-mill  ?  Or  why  did  they 
achieve  the  noblest  models  in  eloquence,  in  poetry,  and 
in  the  drama  before  they  invented  movable  types?  I 
think  we  have  arrived  at  a  point  where  we  can  unriddle 
this  enigma.  The  labor  of  the  world  has  been  performed 
by  ignorant  men,  by  classes  doomed  to  ignorance  from 
sire  to  son  ;  by  the  bondmen  and  the  bondwomen  of  the 


POWER  OF  STEAM   AND   CONTEMPT  OF  ARTISANS.    fc£9 

Jews,  by  the  helots  of  Sparta,  by  the  captives  who  passed 
under  the  Eoman  yoke,  and  by  the  villeins  and  serfs  and 
slaves  of  more  modern  times." 

When  the  great  educational  reformer  of  Massachu- 
setts thus  graphically  pointed  out  slavery  as  the  cause  of 
the  contempt  in  which  the  useful  arts  had  been  held 
from  the  dawn  of  history,  four  millions  of  men  were 
kept  in  bondage  and  compelled  to  toil  under  the  lash 
by  one  of  the  most  enlightened  nations  of  the  earth. 
Later  thirteen  millions  of  people  pledged  "their  lives, 
their  fortunes,  and  their  sacred  honor  "  to  the  perpetua- 
tion of  slavery,  and  half  a  million  soldiers  marched  re- 
peatedly to  battle  to  do  or  die  in  behalf  of  the  right  (?) 
of  one  man  to  buy  and  sell  the  bodies  of  his  fellow-men. 

There  is,  then,  a  logical  reason  for  Mr.  Galton's  neg- 
lect of  the  artisan  class.  Slavery  in  its  most  odious  form 
not  only  existed  in  the  heart  of  a  so-called  "free"  nation 
twenty -five  years  ago,  but  dared  Liberty  to  a  deadly 
contest.  ]STor  were  the-  upholders  of  slavery  without 
moral  support  among  the  governments  and  peoples  of 
the  world.  The  government  of  England,  of  which  Mr. 
Galton  is  a  subject,  under  cover  of  a  pretended  neu- 
trality aided  the  American  slaveholders'  Confederacy  in 
sweeping  Freedom's  ships  from  the  sea ;  and  the  great 
families  of  England,  the  families  cited  by  Mr.  Galton  in 
support  of  his  proposition  that  genius  "is  an  affair  of 
blood  and  breed  " — those  great  families  were  well  pleased 
when  Freedom's  ships  went  down  and  Freedom's  armies 
retreated  before  the  assaults  of  the  slave  confederacy. 

This  somewhat  extended  reference  to  Mr.  Galton  is 
not  intended  to  impugn  his  good  faith  as  an  author.  Its 
design  is  simply  to  show  that  the  influence  of  slavery  is 
not  yet  extinct;  that.it  still  moulds  ideas,  controls  habits 


190  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

of  thought,  inspires  literary  men,  and  permeates  litera- 
ture. In  a  word,  the  cause  of  the  contempt  in  which 
the  useful  arts  were  held  in  Babylon  in  the  time  of  He- 
rodotus was  in  full  force  in  this  country  down  to  the 
date  of  the  issuance  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  proclamation  of 
emancipation;  and  it  is  scarcely  necessary  to  observe 
that  the  British  Constitution  grew  out  of  the  feudal  sys- 
tem, which  was  only  another  name  for  slavery.  It  is  a 
proverb  in  England  to  this  day  that  it  is  safer  to  shoot  a 
man  than  a  hare ;  and  the  sentiment  of  the  proverb  is  a 
complete  justification  of  human  bondage,  since  it  implies 
that  property  rights  are  more  sacred  than  the  rights  of 
man.  Thus  slavery  has  kept  its  brand  of  shame  upon 
the  useful  arts  for  thousands  of  years,  and  the  mind  of 
man  has  been  so  deeply  impressed  thereby  that  it  does 
not  react  now  that  slavery  is  extinct.  Like  the  slave  re- 
leased from  bondage,  who  still  feels  the  chain,  still  winces 
and  shrinks  from  the  imaginary  scourge,  the  mind  of 
man  continues  to  revolve  automatically  in  the  old  chan- 
nels. 


AUTOMATIC  AND   SCIENTIFIC  EDUCATION.  191 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

AUTOMATIC  CONTRASTED  WITH  SCIENTIFIC 
EDUCATION. 

The  Past  tyrannizes  over  the  Present  by  Interposing  the  Stolid  Re- 
sistance of  Habit.  —  Habits  of  Thought  like  Habits  of  the  Body 
become  Automatic. —There  is  much  Freedom  of  Speech  but  very 
little  Freedom  of  Thought :  Habit,  Tradition,  and  Reverence  for 
Antiquity  forbid  it. — The  Schools  educate  Automatically. — A  glar- 
ing Defect  of  the  Schools  shown  by  Mr.  John  S.  Clark,  of  Boston. 
— The  Automatic  Character  of  the  Popular  System  of  Education 
shown  by  the  Quincy  (Mass.)  Experiment.  —  Several  Intelligent 
Opinions  to  the  same  Effect. — The  Public  Schools  as  an  Industrial 
Agency  a  Failure.  —  A  Conclusive  Evidence  of  the  Automatic 
and  Superficial  Character  of  prevailing  Methods  of  Education  in 
the  Schools  of  a  large  City. — The  Views  of  Colonel  Francis  W. 
Parker.— Scientific  Education  is  found  in  the  Kindergarten  and 
the  Manual  Training  School.  —  "The  Cultivation  of  Familiarity 
betwixt  the  Mind  and  Things." — Colonel  Augustus  Jacobson  on 
the  Effect  of  the  New  Education. 

ALL  reforms  must  encounter  the  stolid  resistance  of 
habit.  It  is  not  less  tyrannical  because  it  is  a  negative 
force.  It  braces  itself  and  holds  back  with  all  its  might. 
It  is  in  this  manner  that  the  past  dominates  the  present. 
This  automatic  habit  of  mind  is  precisely  like  certain 
automatic  habits  of  the  body  which  operate  quite  inde- 
pendently of  any  act  of  volition.  For  example :  "  When 
we  move  about  in  a  room  with  the  objects  in  which  we 
are  quite  familiar,  we  direct  our  steps  so  as  to  avoid 
them,  without  being  conscious  what  they  are  or  what  we 
are  doing ;  we  see  them,  as  we  easily  discover  if  we  try 
to  move  about  in  the  same  way  with  our  eyes  shut,  but 


192  MANUAL  TKAINIKG. 

we  do  not  perceive  them,  tlie  mind  being  fully  occupied 
with  some  train  of  thought."*  In  the  same  way  the 
mind  under  certain  conditions  becomes  an  automaton, 
constantly  revolving  old  thoughts  after  the  causes  that 
gave  rise  to  them  have  ceased  to  operate.  Piano-forte 
playing  affords  an  excellent  illustration  of  this  automatic 
action  of  the  mind.  "  A  pupil  learning  to  play  the  piano- 
forte is  obliged  to  call  to  mind  each  note,  but  the  skil- 
ful player  goes  through  no  such  process  of  conscious 
remembrance ;  his  ideas,  like  his  movements,  are  auto- 
matic, and  both  so  rapid  as  to  surpass  the  rapidity  of 
succession  of  conscious  ideas  and  movements."! 

Freedom  of  speech  and  freedom  of  thought  are  catch- 
penny phrases.  There  is  much  of  the  former,  but  very 
little  of  the  latter.  Speech  is  generally  the  result  of  au- 
tomatic thought  rather  than  of  ratiocination.  Indepen- 
dent thought  is  of  all  mental  processes  the  most  difficult 
and  the  most  rare;  habit,  tradition,  and  reverence  for 
antiquity  unite  to  forbid  it,  and  these  combined  influ- 
ences are  strengthened  by  the  law  of  heredity.  The  ten- 
dency to  automatic  action  of  the  mind  is  still  further 
promoted  by  the  environment  of  modern  life.  The 
crowding  of  populations  into  cities,  and  the  division  and 
subdivision  of  labor  in  the  factory  and  the  shop,  and 
even  in  the  so-called  learned  professions,  have  a  tenden- 
cy to  increase  the  dependence  of  the  individual  upon  the 
mass  of  society.  And  this  interdependence  of  the  units 
of  society  renders  them  more  and  more  imitative,  and 
hence  more  and  more  automatic  both  mentally  and  phys- 
ically. 

*  "Body  and  Mind,"  p.  22.     By  Henry  Maudsley,  M.D.     New 
York:  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  1883. 
f  Ibid.,  p.  26. 


AUTOMATIC  AND  SCIENTIFIC   EDUCATION.  193 

Another  powerful  influence  contributes  to  the  same 
end.  The  schools  educate  automatically.  They  train 
the  absorbing  powers  of  the  brain,  but  fail  to  cultivate 
the  faculties  of  assimilation  and  recreation,  and  neglect 
almost  wholly  to  develop  the  power  of  expression.  Mr. 
John  S.  Clark,  of  Boston,  has  made  this  point  of  the 
failure  of  the  schools  to  train  the  brain-power  of  expres- 
sion to  its  utmost  so  plain  that  it  is  here  reproduced  in 
full,  as  follows : 

"  Studying  the  functions  of  the  brain,  we  find  that  for 
educational  purposes  it  may  be  likened  to  an  organism 
with  a  threefold  form  of  working,  an  organism  with  a 
power  of  absorption,  a  power  of  assimilation  and  recrea- 
tion, and  a  power  of  expressing  or  giving  out.  The 
force  or  character  of  a  brain  is  measured  entirely  by  its 
expressing  power,  by  what  comes  out  of  it.  Examining 
a  little  closer,  we  find  that  the  brain  absorbs  through  all 
the  five  senses,  while  for  expressing  purposes  it  makes 
use  of  but  two  of  these  senses,  or  rather  of  but  two 
organs  of  these  senses — 
the  tongue  and  the  hand. 
Fig.  1  is  a  simple  dia- 
gram representing  a  brain 
with  the  five  senses  placed 
on  one  side,  as  means  of 
absorbing  power,  while  on 

the  other  side  the  tongue  and  the  hand  are  placed  as 
organs  of  expressing  power.  The  other  function  of 
the  brain,  that  of  assimilation  and  recreation,  cannot  of 
course  be  graphically  represented.  It  may,  however,  be 
said  to  be  the  result  of  the  action  of  the  other  two  func- 
tions. Now,  the  equipping  of  a  brain,  or  the  healthy 
education  of  a  brain,  consists  in  giving  it  expressing 


194  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

power  through  the  tongue  and  the  hand,  coextensive 
with  the  power  of  absorption  and  the  power  of  re- 
creation. 

Applying  our  popular  schemes  of  education  to  the 
brain,  and  especially  those  based  on  the  3-R  idea  of  edu- 
cation, we  find  what  is  indicated  in  Fig.  2,  that  provision 
has  been  made  for  greatly  distending  the  absorbing  side 
of  the  brain,  while  for  the  expressing  side,  the  practical 
side,  provision  has  been  limited  to  the  use  of  the  tongue 
in  speech  and  to  the  hand  in  writing.  If  now  we  follow 
the  result,  of  this  brain  equipment  into  practical  life,  we 
find  that  speech  and  writing,  as  means  for  expressing 


Reading. 

Mathematics 

Geography. 

Grammar. 

History. 

Languages. 

Physiology. 

Literature. 

Natural  Hi.tory. 

Theoretical  Science!. 


Fig.  2. 


thought,  have  their  applications  mainly  in  the  commer- 
cial and  financial  employments  and  the  professions,  and 
only  incidentally  in  the  industrial  and  mechanical  em- 
ployments. With  such  an  inadequate  and  one-sided 
brain  equipment  it  is  not  possible  in  any  broad,  prac- 
tical way  to  bring  thought  or  brain-power  to  the  service 
of  industry.  The  fact  so  generally  admitted,  that  we 
are  getting  so  few  intelligent  artisans  or  mechanics  from 
our  scheme  of  public  education,  that  we  turn  out  pupils 
of  both  sexes  with  a  decided  repugnance  to  industrial 
labor,  is  an  attestation  to  the  truth  of  this  statement. 
The  simple  fact  is  that  our  education  is  not  broad 
enough  on  the  expressing  side  of  the  brain,  that  too 
much  attention  has  been  given  to  the  absorbing  side  of 


AUTOMATIC  AND  SCIENTIFIC   EDUCATION.  195 

this  organ,  that  no  adequate  provisions  have  been  made 
whereby  it  can  discharge  its  power  in  work  connected 
with  the  industries. 

"  In  Fig.  3  a  remedy  for  this  defect  is  indicated  in  the 
addition  of  the  study  of  graphic  and  aesthetic  art,  through 
drawing,  and  of  training  in  the  manual  arts,  to  the  pre- 
vious brain  equipment.  Observe  where  these  features 
come  in  the  scheme — on  the  expressing  side  of  the  brain 
and  in  the  service  of  the  hand,  thus  giving  the  brain 
ample  power  to  discharge  thought  in  its  most  complete 
form  for  use  or  for  beauty.  With  these  features  added 
to  the  brain  equipment  its  power  of  expressing  thought 


Reading. 

Mathematics. 

Geography. 

Grammar. 

History. 

Languages. 

Physiology. 

Literature. 

Natural  History. 

Theoretical  Sciences. 

Practical  Sciences. 


Fig.  3. 


in  all  practical  directions  will  be  coextensive  with  its  ab- 
sorbing and  recreating  powers ;  and  just  as  soon  as  the 
public  can  clearly  see  that  in  the  outcome  of  our  public 
education  there  is  no  respecting  of  persons  or  of  classes, 
that  pupils  are  trained  for  honest  labor  with  their  hands 
as  well  as  to  living  by  their  wits,  are  taught  to  produce 
something,  to  create  values  by  the  action  of  their  brain 
through  the  work  of  their  hands,  a  much  deeper  interest 
in  public  education  will  not  only  be  manifested,  but  gen- 
erous provisions  for  its  support  will  also  be  given."* 
The  charge  that  the  schools  educate  automatically 


*  Address  delivered  before  the  Philadelphia  Board  of  Trade  and 
the  Franklin  Institute,  June  6, 1881. 

9 


196  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

rather  than  rationally  is  of  such  vital  importance  that 
it  should  be  sustained  by  the  best  attainable  proof. 
Strong  proof  is  at  hand  in  the  history  of  the  so-called 
Quincy  (Mass.)  experiment. 

In  1878  doubt  of  the  efficiency  of  the  schools  of  Nor- 
folk County,  long  indulged,  culminated  in  action  by  the 
Association  of  School  Committees  and  Superintendents. 
It  was  insisted  by  certain  members  of  the  committee  that 
the  existing  methods  were  "about  as  good  as  human  in- 
telligence could  devise,"  and  by  others  that  the  people 
were  getting  "  no  adequate  returns  for  the  money  ex- 
pended under  the  system  in  general  use."  It  was  re- 
solved to  institute  a  searching  investigation,  and  the 
standard  for  the  measurement  of  the  acquirements  of 
pupils  adopted  was,  "a  reasonable  degree  of  ability  to 
read,  to  write  legibly,  correctly,  and  grammatically,  and 
to  deal  readily  with  simple  mathematics  after  about  eight 
years  of  schooling." 

The  association  selected  Mr.  George  A.  "Walton,  an 
experienced  educator,  to  make  the  examination  of  the 
schools  of  the  county,  and  the  number  of  pupils  exam- 
ined exceeded  three  thousand.  In  their  preface  to  Mr. 
Walton's  report  the  gentlemen  of  the  association  say : 

"Publicity,  discussion,  and  discontent  are  wholesome 
things  to  apply  to  school  management  in  Massachusetts. 
That  this  is  a  fair  sample  of  the  results  now  accomplished 
cannot  be  questioned.  But  though  they  may  not  be  flat- 
tering to  our  pride,  we  yet  believe  that  they  are  as  good 
as  can  be  obtained  in  any  other  county  in  Massachusetts, 
or,  indeed,  of  any  other  State  where  similar  tests  are 
applied  in  a  similar  manner.  If  any  school  authorities 
elsewhere  doubt  the  truth  of  this  statement,  let  the  ex- 
periment be  tried  in  the  schools  of  their  county. 


AUTOMATIC  AND  SCIENTIFIC  EDUCATION.  197 

"The  questions  naturally  arise, What  is  the  cause  of 
this  lamentable  ignorance?  and  what  is  the  remedy? 
The  answer  to  the  former  suggests  the  reply  to  the  latter. 
Too  much  has  been  attempted  in  the  schools.  There  has 
been  a  slavish  adherence  to  the  text-books,  and  no  room 
given  for  freedom  and  originality  of  thought.  Rules 
have  been  memorized,  and  the  children  taught  to  recite 
from  the  text-book,  while  they  have  not  had  the  slightest 
conception  of  the  true  meaning  of  the  subject.  .  .  . 

"  The  rules  and  exceptions  in  grammar  are  faithfully 
committed  to  memory,  and  most  intricate  sentences  can 
be  successfully  analyzed,  the  phrases  separated,  and  the 
modifiers  named  in  true  grammatical  style,  while  the  pu- 
pils who  have  undergone  such  severe  training  in  this  re- 
spect are  unable  to  present  their  own  thoughts  concisely 
or  clearly,  or  even  correctly,  upon  paper.  The  memory 
is  cultivated,  and  the  reason  allowed  to  slumber. 

"In  arithmetic  the  pupils  show  a  readiness  to  solve 
a  problem  when  they  are  able  to  fit  it  to  some  rule  that 
they  have  learned ;  but  when  they  are  given  a  simple 
question  out  of  the  regular  course,  they  are  like  a  ship  at 
sea  without  rudder  or  compass." 

This  is  the  severest  and  most  sweeping  criticism  ever 
passed  upon  our  American  common-school  system,  and  it 
emanates  from  its  friends  and  the  friends  of  universal 
education. 

Mr.  Walton  says  of  reading,  as  taught  in  the  Norfolk 
County  schools,  "  As  for  any  systematic  analysis  by  which 
the  pupil  learns  to  make  a  careful  and  independent  study 
of  his  piece,  it  is  but  little  practised  in  the  schools  even 
of  the  grammar  grade ;"  and  he  declares  that  reading, 
without  comprehending  the  ideas  of  which  the  words 
are  mere  signs,  "  is  not  merely  useless,  but  dangerous, 


198  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

just  in  proportion  to  the  facility  with  which  the  words 
are  called." 

Of  the  results  of  his  examinations  in  penmanship  Mr. 
Walton  says,  "  Most  of  the  faults  in  the  writing  indicate 
imperfect  teaching."  Of  his  examinations  in  spelling  he 
says  that  "the  commonest  words  are  misspelled  when  used 
in  sentences  or  composition,  while  words  of  difficult  or- 
thography are  spelled  with  accuracy  when  dictated  for 
spelling."  For  example,  he  says,  "  The  words  '  whose,' 
'  which,'  and  '  father,'  when  spelled  orally,  were  generally 
correct,  but  when  wrritten  in  sentences  they  were  fre- 
quently in  many  schools,  in  a  majority  of  cases,  errone- 
ous." No  test  could  more  clearly  demonstrate  the  purely 
mechanical  character  of  the  methods  of  instruction  than 
this  of  a  comparison  between  the  pupils'  oral  and  written 
spelling.  The  average  of  excellence  in  spelling  the  three 
simple  words  "which,  whose,  scholar,"  of  the  primary 
grade  for  the  whole  county  of  Norfolk,  as  found  by  Mr. 
Walton,  was  the  exceedingly  low  one  of  55.9,  the  basis 
being  100. 

The  ingenuity  in  bad  spelling  of  this  grade  of  pupils, 
who  had  been  at  least  four  years  in  school,  is  well  illus- 
trated by  the  example  of  the  word  "  carriage,"  written 
as  follows :  "  Garage,  carrage,  craidge,  caradg,  carege,  car- 
riag,  carrige ;"  and  of  the  word  "  sleigh,"  written  "  saly, 
slay,  slaig,  slaigh,  slagh,  slaw,  sleig,  sleugh,  sleight,  sligh, 
sley,  slew,  slave,  sleygh ;"  and  of  the  word  "  Tuesday," 
written  "  Tusgay,  tuestay,  toesday ;"  and  of  the  word 
"  Wednesday,"  written  "  wanesday,  wedenyday,  Wederns- 
day,  wednest,  Wenday,  Wendsday,  wensday,  wenesday, 
wensdaw,  wenze,  Wenzie,  Wendsstay,  wenstday,  Wesday, 
Whensday,  winday,  Windday,  Winsday,"  etc. 

The  word  "  scholar  "  presented  one  hundred  and  sixty 


AUTOMATIC  AND  SCIENTIFIC   EDUCATION.  199 

different  erroneous  spellings ;  that  of  "depot"  fifty,  among 
which  were  the  following:  "Deappow,  deppowe,  deaphow, 
deapohoe,  teapot,  doopo,"  and  "  bepo."  An  exercise  in 
spelling  by  both  grades  of  pupils,  the  "primary,"  com- 
posed of  pupils  from  eight  and  a  half  to  ten  and  a  half 
years  old,  and  the  "  grammar,"  composed  of  pupils  from 
twelve  and  a  half  to  fifteen  and  a  half  years  old,  showed 
errors  of  which  the  following  are  examples :  Any,  spelled 
ane  and  enny ;  along,  alond  and  alon ;  amongst,  amunt ; 
animals,  anables ;  arithmetic,  rithmes ;  asked,  asted ;  beau- 
tiful, beuful ;  been,  ben,  bene,  and  bin ;  by-and-by,  bimeby ; 
coat,  coot,  coth,  cote,  goat,  and  coate ;  Boston,  bostone ; 
boy,  poy,  and  bou ;  city,  sitty ;  eggs,  ages ;  custard-pie, 
ousted  puy;  coming,  comin,  commun,  gomming,  and 
comming. 

An  exercise  in  composition  developed  the  following 
specimen  errors :  "  The  was  two  boys ;  They  was  two 
boys ;  How  is  all  the  boys  ?  Things  that  was  good  ;  They 
is  not  many  here  I  know ;  He  come  to  school ;  I  see  him 
yesterday ;  He  asked  cyrus  what  he  done  that  day ;  I  had 
saw  him ;  he  had  wore  a  coat,"  etc. 

The  examinations  in  mathematics  yielded  similar  re- 
sults to  those  developed  in  reading,  writing,  spelling,  and 
composition.  Mr.  Walton  says,  "  If  instead  of  this  [the 
routine  method  of  the  school]  the  pupil  should  be  com- 
pelled to  deal  with  real  things,  and  to  find  his  answer  by 
studying  the  conditions  of  his  problem,  the  fiction  which 
arithmetic  now  is  to  most  pupils  would  become  to  them 
a  reality."* 

*  "The  New  Departure  in  the  Common  Schools  of  Quincy,"  by 
Charles  F.  Adams,  Jr.,  and  the  "Report  of  Examination  of  Schools 
in  Norfolk  County,  Mass.,"  by  George  A.  Walton.  Boston :  Estes 
&  Lauriat,  1881. 


200  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

The  prime  difficulty  is  here  stated.  The  schools  deal 
in  "fictions."  In  the  language  of  the  Norfolk  County 
committee,  "The  memory  is  cultivated  and  the  reason 
allowed  to  slumber."  Now,  if  to  every  fact  memorized 
the  pupil  were  required  to  apply  the  test  of  reason  to 
analyze  it  and  find  out  its  relation  to  other  facts,  and  fix 
it  with  all  its  relations  in  his  mind,  he  would  possess  cer- 
tain solid  information  of  an  ascertained  practical  value. 
It  is  very  simple.  It  is  making  the  pupil  think  for  him- 
self by  showing  him  how  to  think  for  himself  instead 
of  thinking  for  him.  Of  course  this  is  object-teaching. 
In  the  reading-lesson  the  pupil  is  required  to  know  the 
meaning  of  the  words  of  which  it  is  composed  in  or- 
der to  read  with  correct  expression.  When  required 
to  spell  a  word  orally  he  is  also  required  to  write  it. 
In  the  study  of  arithmetic  he  is  shown  certain  objects, 
blocks  of  cubical  and  other  forms,  and  required  to  ap- 
ply the  rules  of  the  book  to  the  ascertainment  of  their 
contents.  In  grammar  the  analysis  of  the  sentence  is 
followed  by  the  writing  of  it,  and  the  construction  of 
other  sentences  involving  similar  principles  in  the  art  of 
composition,  and  so  on. 

This  is  the  kindergarten  system  now  rapidly  coming 
into  high  favor  as  an  essential  preliminary  step  in  educa- 
tion. It  is  also  the  system  of  the  manual  training  school. 
Under  that  system  the  pupil  is  not  merely  told  that  the 
saw  is  a  thin,  flat  piece  of  steel  with  teeth  used  for  cut- 
ting boards  and  timbers ;  a  saw  is  placed  in  his  hand  and 
he  is  taught  to  use  it :  and  so  of  all  the  hand  and  ma- 
chine tools  of  the  trades.  He  stands  at  the  forge,  bends 
over  the  moulding-form,  shoves  the  plane  in  the  carpen- 
ter-shop, presides  at  the  turning-lathe,  that  ingenious  in- 
vention of  Maudslay — an  automaton  truer  than  the  human 


AUTOMATIC  AND  SCIENTIFIC   EDUCATION.  201 

eye,  more  cunning  and  more  accurate  than  the  human 
hand ;  executes  plans  for  patterns  and  then  makes  the 
patterns,  and  finally,  from  the  faint  lines  he  has  traced 
on  paper,  constructs  a  machine,  breathes  the  breath  of  life 
(steam)  into  its  veins,  and  with  it  moves  mountains ! 

In  further  support  of  the  charge  that  the  schools  edu- 
cate automatically,  and  hence  superficially,  the  following 
intelligent  opinions  are  cited : 

Charles  Francis  Adams,  Jr.,  remarks  that  the  com- 
mon schools  of  Massachusetts  cost  $4,000,000  a  year; 
and  adds,  "  The  imitative  or  memorizing  faculties  only 
are  cultivated,  and  little  or  no  attention  is  paid  to  the 
thinking  or  reflective  powers.  Indeed  it  may  almost  be 
said  that  a  child  of  any  originality  or  with  individual 
characteristics  is  looked  upon  as  wholly  out  of  place  in  a 
public  school.  ...  To  skate  is  as  difficult  as  to  write ; 
probably  more  difficult.  Yet  in  spite  of  hard  teaching 
in  the  one  case  and  no  teaching  in  the  other,  the  boy  can 
skate  beautifully,  and  he  cannot  write  his  native  tongue 
at  all."* 

Mr.  Edward  Atkinson  says,  "We  are  training  no 
American  craftsmen,  and  unless  we  devise  better  meth- 
ods than  the  old  and  now  obsolete  apprentice  system, 
much  of  the  perfection  of  our  almost  automatic  mech- 
anism will  have  been  achieved  at  the  cost  not  only  of  the 
manual  but  also  of  the  mental  development  of  our  men. 
Our  almost  automatic  mills  and  machine-shops  will  be- 
come mental  stupefactories."f 

Prof.  Barbour,  of  Yale  College,  says,  "Our  schools  are 

*  "  Scientific  Common-school  Education."— Harper's  New  Monthly 
Magazine,  November,  1880,  pp.  935,  939. 

f  "Elementary  Instruction  in  the  Mechanic  Arts." — Scribner's 
Monthly,  April,  1881,  p.  902. 


202  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

suffering  from  congestion  of  the  brain :  too  much  thought 
and  too  little  putting  it  in  practice." 

An  English  observer  of  our  public  schools  says,  "  They 
teach  apparently  for  information,  almost  regardless  of  de- 
velopment. This  system  develops  no  special  individual- 
ity or  power,  forms  few  habits  of  observation,  benefits 
little  except  the  memory,  and  herein  lies  its  great  weak- 
ness." 

The  late  Mr.  "Wendell  Phillips  said,  "  Our  system  stops 
too  short,  and  as  a  justice  to  boys  and  girls  as  well  as  to 
society  it  should  see  to  it  that  those  whose  life  is  to  be 
one  of  manual  labor  should  be  better  trained  for  it." 

Mr.  Wickersham,  late  Superintendent  of  Public  In- 
struction for  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  says,  "It  is 
high  time  that  something  should  be  done  to  enable  our 
youth  to  learn  trades  and  to  form  industrious  habits  and 
a  taste  for  work." 

Dr.  Runkle,  of  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Tech- 
nology, says,  "Public  education  should  touch  practical 
life  in  a  larger  number  of  points  ;  it  should  better  fit  all 
for  that  sphere  in  life  in  which  they  are  destined  to  find 
their  highest  happiness  and  well-being." 

Opinions  of  this  character  might  be  multiplied  almost 
indefinitely.  They  reflect  the  general  sentiment  that,  as 
an  industrial  agency,  the  public  school  is  a  failure  ;  but 
its  value  as  an  enlightening  and  civilizing  agency  is  not 
therefore  underestimated.  It  was  not  established  as  an 
industrial  agency ;  it  was  established  as  a  bulwark  of  lib- 
erty, and  nobly  did  it  fulfil  its  mission.  The  colonial 
fathers  had  a  horror  of  ignorance,  and  as  a  barrier  against 
it  they  raised  the  public  school.  But  they  were  without 
industrial  interests  in  the  higher  departments  of  skilled 
labor,  and  without  commerce  in  a  large  way.  Lord  Shef- 


AUTOMATIC  AND  SCIENTIFIC  EDUCATION.  203 

field  said  that  the  American  colonies  were  founded  with 
the  sole  view  of  securing  to  England  a  monopoly  of  their 
trade,  and  Lord  Chatham  declared  that  they  had  no  right 
to  manufacture  even  a  nail  or  a  horseshoe.  Even  after 
the  Revolution,  in  1784,  the  commerce  of  the  country 
was  so  insignificant  that  eight  bales  of  cotton  shipped 
from  South  Carolina  were  seized  by  the  customs  authori- 
ties of  England  on  the  ground  that  so  large  a  quantity 
could  not  have  been  produced  in  the  United  States ! 

These  humble  conditions  no  longer  exist,  and  to  object 
to  the  expansion  of  the  public  -  school  system  to  meet 
the  requirements  of  new  exigencies  is  to  ignore  the  logic 
and  march  of  events.  The  nations  are  running  an  in- 
dustrial race,  and  the  nation  that  applies  to  labor  the 
most  thought,  the  most  intelligence,  will  rise  highest  in 
the  scale  of  civilization,  will  gain  most  in  wealth,,  will 
most  surely  survive  the  shocks  of  time,  will  live  longest 
in  history.  In  the  race  for  industrial  supremacy  we  are 
not  at  the  front.  It  is  a  fact  to  be  pondered  that  we  are 
exchanging  the  products  of  unskilled  for  skilled  labor 
with  the  nations  of  Europe.  In  the  course  of  a  year,  for 
example,  England  exports  of  raw  material  and  food  only 
about  $150,000,000  in  value,  while  her  exports  of  manu- 
factures aggregate  about  $850,000,000  in  value.  On  the 
other  hand,  our  exports  consist  almost  entirely  of  raw 
material  and  food,  their  annual  value  being  about 
$800,000,000,  while  of  manufactures  we  export  only  a 
beggarly  $75,000,000  worth,  and  our  imports  of  manu- 
factures are  of  the  annual  value  of  about  $250,000,000. 
In  crude,  uneducated,  unskilled  labor  capacity  we  have 
grown  much  more  rapidly  than  in  the  departments  of 
educated,  skilled  labor ;  and  in  the  exact  ratio  of  this 
growth  of  unskilled  over  skilled  labor  we  are  behind  the 

9* 


204  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

age.  We  are  industrially  ill-balanced.  We  are  selling 
brawn  and  buying  thought — cunning,  invention,  genius ; 
exhausting  our  physical  manhood  and  impoverishing  a 
virgin  soil.  We  are  suffering  from  a  paucity  of  skilled 
labor,  and  we  hesitate  to  apply  the  needed  and  obvious- 
ly adequate  remedy — the  training  of  the  youth  of  the 
country  in  the  elements  of  the  useful  arts,  in  the  public 
schools. 

A  final  and  conclusive  evidence  of  the  verity  of  the 
charge  that  prevailing  methods  of  education  are  auto- 
matic, and  hence  superficial  in  their  character,  is  found 
in  an  examination  test  recently  made  in  one  of  the  public 
schools  in  a  large  American  city,  in  the  department  of 
mathematics.  The  superintendent  begins  to  distrust  his 
own  system,  of  abstract  instruction,  and  resolves  to  test 
the  acquirements  of  certain  classes  of  pupils  ranging  from 
ten  to  twelve  years  of  age.  He  submits  a  series  of  ques- 
tions in  number,  which  are  promptly  solved  either  orally 
or  in  chalk  on  the  black-board,  showing  a  complete  mas- 
tery of  the  subject  from  the  abstract  side,  or  point  of 
view.  To  test  the  practical  value  of  the  knowledge  thus 
exhibited  the  superintendent  repeats  his  series  of  ques- 
tions, applying  them  to  things.  For  example :  He  passes 
six  cards  to  a  pupil,  and  requests  that  one-half  of  them  be 
returned.  This  question  having  been  promptly  and  cor- 
rectly answered  by  the  return  of  three  of  them,  and  the 
six  cards  being  again  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  pupil, 
the  second  question  is  propounded,  namely,  "Please  give 
me  one -third  of  one -half  of  the  cards  in  your  hand." 
The  pupil  is  puzzled ;  he  fumbles  the  cards  nervously, 
blushes,  and  returns  a  wrong  number  or  becomes  entirely 
helpless  and  "gives  it  up."  This  question,  or  some  other 
question  of  similar  general  import,  is  submitted  to  each 


AUTOMATIC  AND  SCIENTIFIC  EDUCATION.  205 

member  of  the  class  with  a  like  unfavorable  result  in 
eight  or  nine  cases  in  a  total  of  ten  cases.  The  superin- 
tendent is  astonished ;  he  is  more  than  astonished,  he  is 
deeply  chagrined ;  for  he  knows  that  the  kindergarten 
child  of  six  or  seven  years  of  age,  with  the  blocks,  would 
answer  his  series  of  questions  correctly  eight  or  nine 
times  in  a  total  of  ten. 

It  is  impossible  to  conceive  of  a  more  striking  illustra- 
tion of  the  prime  defects  of  automatic  education  than  is 
afforded  by  the  foregoing  described  experiment.  It  sus- 
tains and  justifies  the  severe  criticism  of  the  schools  by 
Mr.  Charles  Francis  Adams,  Jr.,  in  his  magazine  article 
of  1880,  in  the  course  of  which  he  says, 

"From  one  point  of  view  children  are  regarded  as 
automatons;  from  another,  as  india-rubber  bags;  from 
a  third,  as  so  much  raw  material.  They  must  move  in 
step  and  exactly  alike.  They  must  receive  the  same 
mental  nutriment  in  equal  quantities  and  at  fixed  times. 
Its  assimilation  is  wholly  immaterial,  but  the  motions 
must  be  gone  through  with.  Finally,  as  raw  material, 
they  are  emptied  in  at  the  primaries,  and  marched  out 
at  the  grammar  grades — and  it  is  well  !"* 

The  testimony  of  Col.  Francis  W.  Parker,  of  the  Cook 
County  (Illinois)  Normal  School,  is  to  the  same  effect. 
He  says, 

"  The  most  important  work  of  to-day  is  to  collect,  rec- 
oncile, and  apply  all  the  principles  and  methods  of  edu- 
cation that  have  been  discovered  in  the  past,  into  one 
science  and  art  of  teaching.  This  would  certainly  radi- 
cally change  all  our  school  work  in  this  country.  When 


*  "  Scientific  Common-school  Education." — Harper's  New  Monthly 
Magazine,  November,  1880,  p.  937. 


306  MANUAL  TRAINING. 


this  is  done  the  ground  will  be  made  ready  for  new  ad- 
vances in  the  incomplete  science  of  education.  Because 
a  complete  science  has  not  yet  been  discovered  is  a  very 
poor  reason  for  not  applying  what  we  already  know. 
"What  specific  changes  would  the  application  of  known 
mental  laws,  in  teaching  about  which  all  psychologists  are 
in  agreement,  bring  about  ?  For  it  is  only  by  a  sharp 
comparison  of  what  is  now  done  according  to  tradition 
and  custom  in  our  schools,  with  that  which  can  be  done 
by  the  application  of  the  simplest  principles  of  teaching, 
that  the  value  of  the  true  art  of  instruction  may  be  in 
some  degree  appreciated. 

"To  illustrate  this  it  may  be  mentioned  that  little 
children  have  been  taught  to  read,  in  the  past,  and  a  great 
majority  of  them  are  now  taught,  by  a  method  that  is 
utterly  opposed  to  a  mental  law,  about  which  there  can 
be  no  dispute  among  those  who  know  anything  of  the 
science  of  teaching.  I  refer  to  the  ABC  method.  Near- 
ly three  hundred  years  ago  Comenius  discovered  a  rule 
of  teaching  which  may  be  said  to  embrace  all  rules  in  its 
category  —  '  Things  that  have  to  be  done  should  be  learned 
by  doing  them.'  This  rule  is  so  simple  and  plain  that 
every  one,  except  the  teachers,  has  adopted  and  used  it 
since  man  has  lived  upon  the  earth.  If  I  am  not  very 
much  mistaken,  the  school-master  for  the  last  fifty  years 
has  been  incessantly  inventing  ways  of  doing  things  in 
the  school-room  by  doing  something  else.  We  try  to 
teach  the  English  language  by  rules,  definitions,  analyses, 
diagrams,  and  parsing.  Before  the  poor  innocent  child 
can  write  a  single  sentence  correctly,  we  teach  the  painful 
pronunciation  of  words  without  the  grasping  of  thought 
as  reading.  We  vainly  endeavor  to  give  children  a 
knowledge  of  number  by  teaching  figures,  the  signs  of 


AUTOMATIC  AND  SCIENTIFIC  EDUCATION.  207 

number.  "We  cram  our  victim's  mind  full  of  empty, 
meaningless  words,  instead  of  inspiring  and  developing 
it  by  the  sweet  and  strong  realities  of  thought.  This 
futile  struggle  to  do  things  by  doing  something  else  is 
to-day  costing  the  people  of  this  country  millions  and 
millions  of  hard-earned  dollars;  and  it  is  much  to  be 
feared  that  it  will  one  day  cost  their  children  the  bless- 
ings of  a  free  government.  This  is  a  serious  charge. 

"  The  three  hundred  thousand  teachers  of  this  country 
are  as  faithful,  honest,  and  earnest  as  any  other  class  of 
active  workers.  If,  then,  these  great  truths  in  education 
be  at  the  doors  of  our  educators,  why  do  they  not  acquire 
and  use  them  ?  The  answer  is  not  far  to  seek.  Not  one 
teacher  in  five  hundred  ever  makes  a  practical,  thorough 
Btudy  of  the  history  of  education,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
science. 

"  The  tremendous  projecting  power  of  tradition  stands 
stubbornly  in  the  way  of  progress  in  education.  It  can 
only  be  m'et  and  overcome  by  the  most  thorough  search- 
ing and  indefatigable  study  of  the  child's  nature,  and  of 
the  means  by  which  the  possibilities  for  good  in  God's 
greatest  creation  may  be  realized."* 

The  change  from  automatic  to  scientific  education 
ought  not  to  be  very  difficult.  It  has  been  made  in 
the  kindergarten.  It  consists  in  substituting  things  in 
the  place  of  signs.  The  boy  should  be  taught  to  read  in 
school  as  he  will  be  required  to  read ;  to  write  as  he  will 
be  required  to  write ;  and  to  cipher  as  he  will  be  required 
to  cipher,  when  he  becomes  a  man. 

In  teaching  chemistry,  for  example,  there  should  be 

*  Letter  to  the  author  under  date  of  April,  1883,  and  by  him  re- 
produced in  a  communication  published  in  the  Chicago  Tribune, 
April  23,  1883. 


208  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

a  laboratory  with  the  necessary  illustrative  apparatus. 
In  teaching  geography,  in  addition  to  the  books  and  the 
globe,  the  form  of  the  continent  should  be  moulded  in 
sand,  with  coast  lines,  mountain  ranges,  rivers,  canals,  har- 
bors, cities,  etc.  In  teaching  number  the  pupil  should 
have  the  things  and  parts  of  things,  represented  by  signs, 
in  his  hands.  In  teaching  mechanics  the  pupil  should 
handle  the  saw,  the  plane,  the  file,  the  hammer,  and  the 
chisel,  and  stand  at  the  bench,  the  forge,  and  the  turn- 
ing-lathe. It  is  in  this  way  only  that  the  pupil  can  be 
taught  the  power  of  expressing,  as  Mr.  Clark  puts  it, 
"  what  has  been  absorbed  on  the  receptive  side." 

Mr.  MacAlister  illustrates  the  force  of  Mr.  Clark's  di- 
agrams in  a  sentence :  "  We  must  not  close  our  eyes  to 
the  fact  that  by  far  the  larger  number  of  men  in  every 
civilized  community  are  workers  to  whom  a  skilled  hand 
is  quite  as  important  as  a  well  filled  head."*  The  prevail- 
ing methods  of  teaching  fill  the  head  but  do  not  provide 
for  assimilation,  recreation,  and  expression.  Now  to  as- 
similate, to  reduce  to  practical  value  and  put  to  use  facts 
memorized,  and  to  create,  the  power  of  expression  is  an 
essential  prerequisite ;  creating  is  expressing  ideas  in  con- 
crete form.  But  under  the  old  regime  of  education  only 
two  modes  of  expression  are  provided — speech  and  writ- 
ing. A  third  mode — drawing — has  been  very  generally 
adopted.  Drawing,  however,  is  only  the  first  step,  an 
incomplete  step,  so  to  speak,  of  expression.  It  is  a  sign, 
an  outline,  of  a  thing.  What  we  want  is  the  thing  itself. 
That  thing  can  only  be  produced  at  the  forge,  the  bench, 
or  the  lathe ;  and  this  is  manual  training  in  the  arts. 

*  Mr.  James  MacAlister,  Superintendent  of  Schools  of  the  City  of 
Philadelphia,  Pa.,  at  the  meeting  of  the  American  Institute  of  In- 
struction, Saratoga,  N.  Y.,  July  13, 1882. 


AUTOMATIC  AND  SCIENTIFIC   EDUCATION.  209 

What  manual  training  will  do  for  the  pupil  is  ex- 
pressed in  the  following  terse  paragraph  by  Col.  Augus- 
tus Jacobson : 

"The  boy  leaving  school  should  carry  with  him  me- 
chanical, business,  and  scientific  training,  fitting  him  for 
whatever  it  may  become  necessary  for  him  to  do  in  the 
world.  I  would  secure  for  society  the  advantage  of  all 
the  brain  capacity  that  is  born  and  all  the  training  it  can 
take.  It  is  possible  and  practicable  to  let  every  child  of 
fair  capacity  start  in  life  from  -his  school  a  skilled  worker, 
with  the  principal  tools  of  all  the  mechanical  employ- 
ments, an  athlete  with  the  maximum  of  health  possible 
to  him,  and  thoroughly  at  home  in  science  and  literature. 
The  child  so  trained  would,  when  grown,  be  to  the  ordi- 
nary man  of  to-day  what  Jay-Eye-See  is  to  an  ordinary 
plough-horse." 


210  MANUAL  TKAINING. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

AUTOMATIC  CONTRASTED  WITH  SCIENTIFIC  EDU- 
CATION— Continued. 

The  Failure  of  Education  in  America  shown  by  Statistics  of  Railway 
and  Mercantile  Disasters. — Shrinkage  of  Railway  Values  and  Fail- 
ures of  Merchants. — Only  Three  Per  Cent,  of  those  entering  Mer- 
cantile Life  achieve  Success. — Business  Enterprises  conducted  by 
Guess:  Cause,  Unscientific  Education. — Savage  Training  is  better 
because  Objective. — Mr.  Foley,  late  of  the  Massachusetts  Institute 
of  Technology,  on  the  Scientific  Character  of  Manual  Education 
— Prof.  Goss,  of  Purdue  University,  to  the  same  Effect — also  Dr. 
Belfield,  of  the  Chicago  Manual  Training  School. — Students  love 
the  Laboratory  Exercises.  —  Demoralizing  Effect  of  Unscientific 
Training. — The  Failure  of  Justice  and  Legislation  as  contrasted 
with  the  Success  of  Civil  Engineering  and  Architecture. 

A  STRIKING  illustration  of  the  defective  character  of 
both  public  and  private  systems  of  education,  in  the 
United  States,  is  afforded  by  the  statistics  of  commercial, 
railway,  and  other  business  failures.  In  1877  a  careful 
compilation  of  figures  in  regard  to  the  shrinkage  of  rail- 
way values  showed  the  following  result : 

"  In  round  numbers,  eighteen  hundred  millions  of  dol- 
lars, or  thirty-eight  per  cent,  of  the  capital  reported  as 
invested  in  two  hundred  of  our  railway  companies  alone, 
is  wholly  unproductive  to  the  investors,  and  the  greater 
part  is  wholly  lost  to  them.  This  is  sufficiently  appalling, 
but  when  we  consider  how  many  companies  that  have 
managed  to  keep  up  the  interest  on  their  bonds  have 
wholly,  or  almost,  ceased  to  pay  any  interest  on  their  cap- 
ital stock,  which  stock,  in  turn,  has  shrunk  to  seventy- 


AUTOMATIC  AND  SCIENTIFIC  EDUCATION.  211 

five,  fifty,  twenty-five,  ten,  in  some  cases  five  per  cent,  of 
its  par  value,  it  will  seem  to  be  a  reasonable  conclusion 
that  the  actual  shrinkage  and  loss  to  somebody  on  the 
face  value  of  railway  investments  in  the  United  States 
has  been  fully  fifty  per  cent.  !"* 

In  view  of  this  startling  exhibit  it  is  evident  that  in 
the  projection,  construction,  and  management  of  the  rail- 
ways of  the  United  States  there  has  been  gross  incom- 
petency. 

In  1881  Messrs.  R.  G.  Dun  &  Co.,  the  well-known 
commercial  agents,  showed  that  of  the  wholesale  mer- 
chants doing  business  in  the  city  of  Chicago  in  1870 
fifty  per  cent,  had  failed,  suspended,  or  compromised 
with  their  creditors. 

Forty  years  ago  Gen.  Dearborn,  a  prominent  citizen 
of  Chicago,  declared  that  not  more  than  three  per  cent, 
of  the  individuals  who  embark  in  trade  end  life  with  suc- 
cess. The  success  meant,  doubtless,  is  unbroken  solven- 
cy during  the  business  experience  of  the  merchant,  and 
the  final  accumulation  of  a  competence.  The  mercantile 
ranks  in  the  United  States  afford  many  instances  of  in- 
dividual merchants  and  firms  who  have  settled  or  com- 
promised with  their  creditors  several  times,  and  finally 
succeeded — succeeded  at  the  expense  of  their  creditors. 
But  this  is  not  the  success  meant  by  Gen.  Dearborn. 
This  statistical  information,  furnished  by  Messrs.  R.  G. 
Dun  &  Co.,  tends  to  confirm,  approximately,  the  verity 
of  the  common  remark  that  in  trade  not  one  in  a  hun- 
dred succeeds. 

Let  us  suppose  that  three  merchants  in  a  hundred  so 
conduct  their  business  as  never  to  ask  their  creditors  for 

*  The  Chicago  Railway  Age. 


212  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

a  favor,  never  to  "  settle  "  for  50  or  25  cents,  but  always 
pay  "  dollar  for  dollar,"  and  come  out  in  the  end  rich. 
This  is  strictly  legitimate  success.  It  would  be  very  in- 
teresting to  learn  what  becomes  of  the  other  ninety-seven 
merchants.  Most  of  them  go  down  after  a  few  years, 
never  again  to  emerge  above  the  surface  of  commercial 
affairs.  They  live  on  salaries,  enter  the  ranks  of  the 
speculative  class,  or  become  genteel  paupers.  But  doubt- 
less seven  at  least  of  the  ninety-seven  "  compromise  "  and 
"  settle  "  themselves  over  the  breakers,  and  finally  achieve 
success.  So  that  of  the  ten  successful  merchants  out  of 
a  hundred  those  who  succeed  at  the  expense  of  their  cred- 
itors are  as  seven  to  three  of  those  who  win  success  by 
the  highest  degree  of  mercantile  merit. 

"With  ninety  utter  failures,  seven  successes  which  in- 
volve the  misfortune  or  wreck  of  others,  and  only  three 
untarnished  successes  in  a  hundred,  the  general  ambition 
to  enter  mercantile  life  is  simply  unaccountable.  Of 
course  the  small  number  of  successful  merchants  have  to 
calculate  upon  the  failures  which  will  inevitably  occur. 
They  must  discount  the  losses  they  are  sure  to  incur 
through  those  failures — provide  for  them  by  increasing 
the  otherwise  sufficient  profit  of  each  transaction.  In 
this  way  the  public  pays  the  cost  of  each  failure.  In 
other  words,  the  consumer  is  taxed  to  pay  the  expense 
of  ninety  complete  failures,  and  seven  partial  failures,  in 
every  hundred  mercantile  experiments.  This  expense 
aggregates  scores  of  millions  of  dollars  in  this  country 
alone,  every  year.  The  sum  of  losses  by  the  failure  of 
merchants  in  good  seasons  is  very  large,  and  in  seasons 
of  commercial  depression  it  is  vast. 

It  is  evident  that  ninety-seven  in  every  hundred  mer- 
chants mistake  their  avocation.  Only  three  in  a  hundred 


AUTOMATIC  AND  SCIENTIFIC  EDUCATION.  213 

are  exactly  fitted  for  the  business  they  undertake.  They 
are  morally  the  "fittest"  who  survive  by  virtue  of  abil- 
ity and  integrity ;  the  seven  who  survive  by  levying 
contributions  on  their  creditors  may  also  be  regarded  as 
the  "  fittest "  according  to  the  Darwinian  theory.  Of  the 
ninety  who  go  down  without  even  a  struggle  to  "  settle  " 
or  "  compromise,"  they  answer  to  the  received  definition 
of  dirt^u  matter  out  of  place." 

The  investigation  made  by  Messrs.  R.  G.  Dun  &  Co., 
which  resulted  in  the  statistical  information  here  repro- 
duced and  commented  upon,  was  brought  about  by  the 
assertion  in  1881  of  a  life-insurance  agent  that  fifty  per 
cent,  of  the  wholesale  merchants  doing  business  in  the  city 
of  Chicago  in  1870  had  meantime  failed,  suspended,  or  com- 
promised with  their  creditors.  Out  of  this  investigation 
the  question  logically  springs,  "  Is  not  failing  in  business 
made  too  easy  ?"*  If  "  compromises,"  "  settlements,"  and 
"  failures  "  carry  with  them  no  disgrace,  it  is  but  natural 
that  thousands  should  take  the  risk  of  them  in  the  con- 
test for  the  great  prizes  which  are  the  reward  of  success. 
The  distinction  in  the  public  mind  between  the  three 
merchants  in  a  hundred  who  succeed  legitimately  and 
the  seven  who  succeed  by  questionable  "compromises" 
or  "settlements"  is  very  slight;  and  too  many  of  the 

*  "Mercantile  honor  is  held  so  high  in  some  countries  that  the 
calamity  of  bankruptcy  drives  men  mad.  In  France  there  are  nu- 
merous instances  of  almost  superhuman  struggles  on  the  part  of 
ruined  merchants  to  regain,  by  patient  effort  and  pinching  economy, 
their  lost  station  in  the  business  community.  Cesar  Birotteau,  Bal- 
zac's hero  of  such  a  struggle,  dies  from  excess  of  emotion  in  the  hour 
of  his  triumph.  '  Behold  the  death  of  the  just !'  the  Abbe  Loraux 
exclaims,  as  he  regards,  with  lofty  pride,  the  expiring  merchant." — 
"  Ten-minute  Sketches,"  p.  220.  By  Charles  H.  Ham.  Chicago  and 
New  York  :  Belford,  Clark  &  Co.,  1884. 


214  JIANUAL  TRAINING. 

ninety  who  fail  utterly  retire  .with  large  sums  of  money 
which  belong  honestly  to  their  creditors.  Doubtless  the 
life-insurance  agent,  in  depicting  the  perils  of  mercantile 
ventures,  urged  the  propriety  of  the  merchant  fortifying 
himself  against  disaster  by  insuring  his  life  for  the  bene- 
fit of  his  family.  This  is  a  legitimate  argument  when 
addressed  to  the  merchant  in  solvent  condition ;  but  the 
life-insurance  agent's  intimate  acquaintance  with  the 
shaky  finances  of  nine-tenths  of  the  commercial  commu- 
nity teaches  him  that  a  large  share  of  the  money  he  re- 
ceives in  premiums,  comes  not  from  the  merchant,  but 
from  the  merchant's  creditors,  who  will  soon  be  called 
upon,  in  the  natural  course  of  events,  to  consent  to  a 
composition  of  his  claim,  while  the  shaky  merchant  will 
retire  with  a  paid-up  policy  of  insurance  in  favor  of  his 
family. 

It  is  quite  plain  that  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten  the  mer- 
chant who  carries  a  large  policy  of  insurance  on  his  life 
actually  pays  for  it  out  of  his  creditors'  instead  of  his 
own  money.  To  be  sure,  it  may  be  said  that  the  nine 
merchants  hope  and  expect  to  succeed  as  well  as  the  one. 
But  is  not  it  the  duty  of  the  merchant  who  owes  large 
sums  of  money  to  think  more  of  providing  means  for 
the  payment  of  his  immediate  debts  than  of  laying  up  a 
support  for  himself  and  family  in  the  event  of  failure  ? 
Some  disgrace  ought  to  attach  to  failure  in  business ;  that 
is  to  say,  disgrace  enough  to  make  the  merchant  cautious 
and  economical,  with  a  view,  not  to  his  own  protection 
in  the  event  of  failure,  but  to  the  protection  of  his  cred- 
itors, and  of  his  own  reputation  as  a  business  man. 

These  failures,  on  so  vast  a  scale,  of  railway  enterprises, 
and  the  almost  total  wreck  of  mercantile  ventures,  show 
that  the  business  of  this  country  is  done,  as  a  Yankee 


AUTOMATIC   AND  SCIENTIFIC   EDUCATION.  215 

might  say,  "by  guess,"  or  as  the  mechanic  of  the  old 
regime  would  say,  "  by  the  rule  of  thumb."  The  conclu- 
sion is  hence  irresistible  that  the  youth  of  the  United 
States  are  not  so  educated  as  to  fit  them  for  the  conduct, 
to  a  successful  issue,  of  great  business  enterprises.  And 
this  is  an  impeachment  of  what  is  regarded,  on  the  whole, 
as  the  best  system  of  popular  education  in  operation  in 
the  world.  A  system  of  education  which  turns  out  nine- 
ty-three or  ninety-seven  men  who  fail,  to  three  or  seven 
men  who  succeed  in  business,  must  be  very  unscientific. 
If  the  savage  system  of  education  were  not  better  adapt- 
ed to  the  savage  state,  the  savage  would  perish  from  the 
earth  in  the  process  of  civilization.  The  savage  bends 
his  ear  to  the  ground  and  robs  the  forest  of  its  secrets, 
not  three  times  in  a  hundred,  but  ninety  and  nine  times. 
Ninety-nine  times  in  a  hundred  the  savage  traces  the 
footsteps  of  his  enemy  in  the  tangled  mazes  of  the  path- 
less wood. 

In  "Aborigines  of  Australia"*  Mr.  G-.  S.  Lang  states 
that  "one  day  while  travelling  in  Australia  he  pointed 
to  a  footstep  and  asked  whose  it  was.  The  guide  glanced 
at  it  without  stopping  his  horse,  and  at  once  answered, 
'  Whitefellow  call  him  Tiger.'  This  turned  out  to  be  cor- 
rect ;  which  was  the  more  remarkable  as  the  two  men  be- 
longed to  different  tribes,  and  had  not  met  for  two  years." 
Among  the  Arabs  it  is  asserted  that  some  men  know 
every  individual  in  the  tribe  by  his  footstep.  Besides 
this,  every  Arab  knows  the  printed  footsteps  of  his  own 
camels,  and  of  those  belonging  to  his  immediate  neigh- 
bors. He  knows  by  the  depth  or  slightness  of  the  im- 
pression whether  a  camel  was  pasturing,  and  therefore 

*  "Aborigines  of  Australia,"  p.  24. 


216  .  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

not  carrying  any  load,  or  mounted  by  one  person  only, 
or  heavily  loaded.  The  Australian  will  kill  a  pigeon 
with  a  spear  at  a  distance  of  thirty  paces.  The  Esqui- 
mau in  his  kayak  will  actually  turn  somersaults  in  the 
water.  After  giving  many  illustrations  of  the  skill  of 
various  races  of  savages,  Sir  John  Lubbock  says, 

"  What  an  amount  of  practice  must  be  required  to  ob- 
tain such  skill  as  this !  How  true,  also,  must  the  weapons 
be  !  Indeed  it  is  very  evident  that  each  distinct  type  of 
flint  implement  must  have  been  designed  for  some  dis- 
tinct purpose."  He  adds,  "  The  neatness  with  which  the 
Hottentots,  Esquimaux,  North  American  Indians,  etc.,  are 
able  to  sew  is  very  remarkable,  although  awls  and  sinews 
would  in  our  hands  be  but  poor  substitutes  for  needles 
and  thread.  As  already  mentioned  (in  page  332),  some 
cautious  archaeologists  hesitated  to  refer  the  reindeer 
caves  of  the  Dordogne  to  the  Stone  Age,  on  account  of 
the  bone  needles  and  the  works  of  art  which  are  found  in 
them.  The  eyes  of  the  needles  especially,  they  thought, 
could  only  be  made  with  metallic  implements.  Prof. 
Lartet  ingeniously  removed  these  doubts  by  making  a 
similar  needle  for  himself  with  the  help  of  flint ;  but 
he  might  have  referred  to  the  fact  stated  by  Cook  in  his 
first  voyage,  that  the  New  Zealanders  succeeded  in  drill- 
ing a  hole  through  a  piece  of  glass  which  he  had  given 
them,  using  for  this  purpose,  as  he  supposed,  a  piece  of 
jasper."* 

The  education  which  enables  the  savage  to  make  these 
extremely  nice  adjustments  of  means  to  ends  is  scientific. 
The  observation,  for  example,  of  the  Arab  who  draws 

*  "Prehistoric  Times,"  pp.  544,  548.  By  Sir  John  Lubbock,  Bart., 
M.P.  New  York:  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  1875. 


AUTOMATIC  AND  SCIENTIFIC   EDUCATION.  217 

such  accurate  conclusions  from  the  "printed  footstep  of 
the  camel,"  if  applied  to  the  problems  of  civilized  life, 
would  result  in  success,  not  failure. 

The  excellence  of  this  savage  training  consists  in  its 
practical  character,  in  its  perfect  adaptation  to  the  end  in 
view.  For  example,  the  Esquimau  boy  is  not  instructed 
in  the  theory  of  turning  somersaults  in  the  water,  in  his 
kayak.  He  sees  his  father  perform  the  feat ;  he  is  given 
a  kayak  and  required  to  perform  it  also.  The  result  is 
early  and  complete  success.  So  of  the  Arab.  In  trav- 
ersing the  desert  it  is  important  for  him  to  read  every 
sign,  to  translate  every  mark  left  in  the  sand.  Upon  the 
accuracy  of  his  observation  his  life  may  often  depend. 
The  print  of  the  camel's  footstep  may  tell  him  whether 
he  is,  soon  or  late,  to  meet  friend  or  foe.  Hence  from 
early  childhood  his  faculty  of  observation  is  trained  until 
it  soon  becomes  as  delicate  and  nice  as  the  sense  pf  touch 
of  a  blind,  deaf  mute.  Sir  John  Lubbock  thinks  that  a 
great  amount  of  practice  must  be  required  to  achieve  so 
much  skill ;  but  the  results  are  due  probably  more  to  the 
nature,  than  to  the  extent,  of  the  practice.  It  is  the  ex- 
cellence of  the  training  that  produces  results  which  ex- 
cite wonder  and  admiration.  The  savage  is  indolent ;  he 
works  only  that  he  may  eat,  and  he  works  well  simply 
because  he  has  been  taught  objectively  instead  of  sub- 
jectively. 

The  difference  in  results  between  the  best  and  the 
poorest  methods  of  instruction  is  very  great,  as  witness 
the  testimony  of  Mr.  Thomas  Foley,  late  instructor  in 
forging,  vise-work,  and  machine-tool  work  in  the  school 
of  mechanic  arts  of  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Tech- 
nology. He  says, 

"It  is  a  great  waste  of  time  to  spend  two  or  three 


218  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

years  in  acquiring  knowledge  of  a  given  business  profes- 
sion or  trade  that  can  be  acquired  in  the  short  space  of 
twelve  or  thirteen  days  under  a  proper  course  of  instruc- 
tion. Twelve  days  of  systematic  school-shop  instruction 
produces  as  great  a  degree  of  dexterity  as  two  or  more 
years'  apprenticeship  under  the  adverse  conditions  which 
prevail  in  the  trade-shop."*  The  manual  training  meth- 
ods are  the  same  as  those  which  enable  the  savage  to 
perform  such  feats  of  skill.  They  are  the  natural  and 
hence  most  efficient  methods  of  imparting  instruction. 

The  manual  training  school  is  a  kindergarten  for  boys 
fourteen  years  of  age.  Miss  S.  E.  Blow,  in  formulating 
the  theory  of  the  kindergarten,  describes  the  methods  of 
the  savage's  school,  and  those  of  the  manual  training 
school,  as  follows : 

"  It  is  a  truth  now  universally  recognized  by  educators 
that  ideas  are  formed  in  the  mind  of  a  child  by  abstrac- 
tion and  generalization  from  the  facts  revealed  to  him 
through  the  senses ;  that  only  what  he  himself  has  per- 
ceived of  the  visible  and  tangible  properties  of  things 
can  serve  as  the  basis  of  thought;  and  that  upon  the  viv- 
idness and  completeness  of  the  impressions  made  upon 
him  by  external  objects,  will  depend  the  clearness  of  his 
inferences  and  the  correctness  of  his  judgments.  It  is 
equally  true,  and  as  generally  recognized,  that  in  young 
children  the  perceptive  faculties  are  relatively  stronger 
than  at  any  later  period,  and  that  while  the  understand- 
ing and  reason  still  sleep,  the  sensitive  mind  is  receiving 
those  sharp  impressions  of  external  things  which,  held 
fast  by  memory,  transformed  by  the  imagination,  and 

*  Report  on  "The  Manual  Element  in  Education,"  p.  30.  By  John 
D.  Runkle,  Ph.D.,  LL.D.,  Walker  Professor  of  Mathematics,  Insti- 
tute of  Technology,  Boston,  Mass. 


AUTOMATIC  AND  SCIENTIFIC  EDUCATION.  219 

finally  classified  and  organized  through,  reflection,  result 
in  the  determination  of  thought  and  the  formation  of 
character. 

"  These  two  parallel  truths  indicate  clearly  that  the 
first  duty  of  the  educator  is  to  aid  the  perceptive  faculties 
in  their  work  by  supplying  the  external  objects  best  cal- 
culated to  serve  as  the  basis  of  normal  conceptions,  by 
exhibiting  these  objects  from  many  different  stand-points 
— that  variety  of  interest  may  sharpen  and  intensify  the 
impressions  they  make  upon  the  mind,  and  by  presenting 
them  in  such  a  sequence  that  the  transition  from  one 
object  to  another  may  be  made  as  easy  as  possible."* 

This  admirable  exposition  of  the  theory  of  scientific 
education  solves  the  mystery  which  has  always  enveloped 
savage  skill.  It  also  affords  a  philosophic  explanation  of 
the  fact  discovered  by  Mr.  Foley,  namely,  that  the  stu- 
dent of  the  manual  training  school  acquires  as  much 
knowledge  in  one  hundred  and  twenty  hours  as  the  ap- 
prentice of  the  machine-shop  does  in  two  years.  In  a 
word,  it  shows  exactly  why  scientific  education  is  so  in- 
comparably superior  to  automatic  education.  Mr.  Foley 
asserts,  in  substance,  that  the  scientific  methods  of  the 
manual  training  school  are  twenty  times  as  valuable  to 
the  student  as  the  unscientific  methods  of  the  trade-shop 
are  to  the  apprentice. 

In  a  familiar  letter  to  the  author,  Prof.  Gossf  shows 
why  the  methods  of  the  manual  training  school  are  so 
very  valuable.  He  says : 

*  "  The  Kindergarten.  An  address,  delivered  April  3, 1875,  before 
the  Normal  Teachers'  Association,  at  St.  Louis,  Mo." 

f  Prof.  William  F.  M.  Goss,  a  graduate  of  the  school  of  mechanic 
arts  of  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology,  and  at  present  in- 
structor in  the  mechanic  arts  department  of  the  Purdue  University. 

10 


220  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

"  In  such  a  school,  or  course,  a  student  is  taught  to  per- 
form a  series  of  operations,  involving  practice  with  a  va- 
riety of  tools,  on  pieces  of  suitable  material.  It  is  not  to 
be  supposed  that  his  ability  to  make  a  certain  piece  is 
directly  valuable,  for  the  experience  of  a  lifetime  may 
never  require  him  to  make  it  again.  It  is  not  expected 
that  while  making  the  piece  he  will  learn  a  number  of 
formulated  facts  relating  to  his  work,  and  its  application 
to  other  work,  for  that  is  not  the  best  way  to  learn.  Nor 
can  we  expect  him  to  acquire  a  high  degree  of  hand  skill 
(accuracy  and  rapidity  of  movement  combined),  for  this 
his  limited  time  will  not  permit.  But  he  does  this :  he 
works  out  a  practical  mechanical  problem  with  every 
piece  he  makes.  He  sees  how  the  tool  must  be  handled, 
and  how  the  material  operated  on  behaves.  He  comes  to 
understand  why  the  tool  cuts  well  in  some  directions  and 
not  so  well  in  others;  and  all  the  time  he  queries  to 
himself  where  it  was  that  he  saw  a  joint  like  the  one  he 
is  making.  He  is  an  investigator — as  much  so  as  a  stu- 
dent in  chemistry.  His  mind  must  always  guide  his 
hand;  his  reasoning  opens  new  fields  of  thought  with 
every  stroke  of  the  chisel. 

"  A  boy  ten  years  old,  who  was  a  member  of  a  class 
under  my  direction  in  Indianapolis  in  1883,  is  reported 
to  have  said,  '  Why,  mother,  I  never  looked  at  the  doors 
and  windows  so  much  in  all  my  life  as  I  have  since  I  be- 
gan at  the  wood-working  school.' 

"  I  tell  my  students  how  to  go  to  work  when  they  are 
likely  to  make  mistakes,  and  how  mistakes  may  be  avoid- 
ed. In  operating  along  the  line  directed  they  thorough- 
ly understand  what  they  are  doing,  and  why  they  do  it. 
They  see  on  all  sides  of  their  work. 

"If  I  have  several  different  tools  for  doing  work  of 


AUTOMATIC  AND  SCIENTIFIC  EDUCATION.  221 

the  same  character,  I  frequently  give  a  student  first  one 
and  then  another,  until  he  has"  tried  them  all.  Then 
I  ask  him  which  he  likes  best,  and  why.  Suppose  we  are 
to  make  a  drawing-board.  The  class  having  already  been 
made  familiar  with  the  principles  governing  the  shrink- 
age and  warping  of  woods,  is  asked  in  what  way  the  cleats, 
to  prevent  warping,  may  best  be  fastened  to  the  ends. 
The  question  is  left  open  for  a  day  or  two,  and  sketches 
are  submitted  and  views  exchanged  on  the  subject. 

"  I  frequently  ask  my  students  to  pass  to  me,  in  writ- 
ing, as  many  facts  (not  in  the  form  of  a  composition)  as 
they  can  think  of  regarding  certain  stated  features  of 
their  work  —  not  facts  to  be  obtained  from  books,  but 
from  things  they  have  seen  and  with  which  they  are  fa- 
miliar. The  replies  are  often  remarkable  for  accuracy 
and  force  of  statement.  .  .  . 

"  The  manual  training  school  that  does  not  by  its  work 
inspire  thought  and  encourage  investigation  is  poor  in- 
deed ;  the  school  that  assumes  its  work  to  be  mind  train- 
ing Tyy  hand  practice  is  the  ideal  school,  and  the  school 
that  will  succeed.  .  .  . 

"  My  answer  to  your  second  and  third  questions  is  al- 
ready evident.  I  consider  an  hour  in  the  shop  as  valuable 
for  its  intellectual  training  as  an  hour  of  book-study,  and 
two  hours  in  the  shop  as  valuable  as  two  hours  of  study. 
I  do  not  think  that  a  student  can  take  two  hours  of  shop- 
work  in  addition  to  a  full  course  of  outside  study ;  but  I 
am  convinced  that  two  hours  in  the  shop  can  be  made  to 
take  the  place  of  one  hour  of  study  without  extra  burden 
to  the  student.  Therefore,  this  being  done,  the  student 
will  get  as  much  again  intellectual  benefit  from  the  shop 
as  he  would  get  if  the  shop-work  equivalent  in  time  were 
given  to  book-study."  . 


222  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

This  description  of  the  mental  operations  which  ac- 
company the  shop  exercises  of  the  manual  training 
school  shows  the  intimacy  of  the  relations  existing  be- 
tween the  brain  and  the  hand.  It  shows  how  they  act 
and  react  upon  each  other,  and  affords  an  explanation  of 
the  remark  of  Dr.  Belfield,*  that  the  laboratory  exercises 
are  in  fact  a  great  strain  upon  the  mental  constitution  of 
the  student.  This  observation  of  Dr.  Belfield,  one  of  the 
most  distinguished  teachers  of  the  old  regime  in  the 
United  States,  entirely  justifies  the  claim  made  in  behalf 
of  the  scientific  character  of  manual  training  as  an  edu- 
cational agency,  for  it  shows  that  such  training  is  in  no 
sense  automatic.  If  manual  training  is  a  great  strain 
upon  the  mental  faculties,  it  must  be  because  the  use  of 
tools  stimulates  such  faculties  to  great  activity.  And  if 
this  is  true,  the  mental  discipline  derived  from  manual 
training  must  be  proportionally  great.  This  is  a  pivotal 
point;  for  if  the  observation  of  Dr.  Belfield  is  well 
founded  in  fact  and  reason,  it  proves  to  a  demonstration 
the  high  educational  value  of  manual  training — proves  its 
superiority  over  all  the  methods  of  the  old  regime. 

Prof.  Goss  says,  "  The  manual  training  school  student 
is  an  investigator — as  much  so  as  a  student  in  chemis- 
try. His  mind  must  always  guide  kis  hand,  his  reason- 
ing opens  new  fields  of  thought  with  every  stroke  of  the 
chisel.  He  sees  on  all  sides  of  his  work."f  And  Dr. 

*  Henry  H.  Belfield,  A.M.,  Ph.D.,  Director  of  the  Chicago  Manual 
Training  School. 

f  "No  extent  of  acquaintance  with  the  meanings  of  words  can 
give  the  power  of  forming  correct  inferences  respecting  causes  and 
effects.  The  constant  habit  of  drawing  conclusions  from  data,  and 
then  of  verifying  those  conclusions  by  observation  and  experiment, 
can  alone  give  the  power  of  judging  correctly." — "Education,  "p.  88. 
By  Herbert  Spencer.  New  York  :  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  1883. 


AUTOMATIC  AND  SCIENTIFIC  EDUCATION.  223 

Belfield  says  that  these  varied  operations  of  the  mind 
cause  a  severe  mental  strain.  It  would  be  difficult  to 
find  a  better  exemplification  of  scientific  education  than 
a  course  of  training  which  exercises  simultaneously  the 
powers  of  both  body  and  mind,  a  course  which  with  every 
fresh  burden  put  upon  the  mind  puts  new  vitality  into 
the  body.  This  is,  indeed,  the  very  opposite  of  auto- 
matic education,  and  we  may  well  call  it  scientific  educa- 
tion. 

Another  leaf  from  the  experience  of  Dr.  Belfield  is 
worthy  of  reproduction  here.  On  the  20th  of  February, 
1884,  he  took  the  sense  of  the  students  in  his  school  on 
the  question  whether  or  not  they  should  indulge  in  a 
vacation  on  Washington's  birthday  anniversary.  Some- 
what to  his  surprise  the  vote  was  almost  unanimous  in  the 
affirmative.  He  acceded  to  the  wishes  of  the  students, 
but  no  sooner  was  the  announcement  made,  than  he  was 
besieged  with  applications  from  nearly  all  of  them  for 
permission  to  convert  the  holiday  into  a  work-day  in  the 
laboratories !  Dr.  Belfield  has  been  compelled  to  post  a 
peremptory  order  against  the  occupancy  of  the  school 
laboratories  by  the  students  on  Saturdays,  which  are  reg- 
ular vacation  days. 

Natural  training  is  scientific  training.  The  fondness 
of  the  student  for  the  manual  training  school  is  evi- 
dence of  its  scientific  character.  He  is  fond  of  it  because 
it  is  natural.  Miss  Blow  says  of  the  child :  "  Only  what 
he  himself  has  perceived  of  the  visible  and  tangible  prop- 
erties of  things  can  serve  as  the  basis  of  thought,  and 
upon  the  vividness  and  completeness  of  the  impressions 
made  upon  him  by  external  objects  will  depend  the 
clearness  of  his  inferences  and  the  correctness  of  his 
judgments."  This  is  the  education  both  of  the  kinder- 


234  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

garten  and  the  manual  training  school,  and  it  brightens, 
stimulates,  and  develops,  while  automatic  education  stu- 
pefies. 

Mr.  Foley,  formerly  of  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of 
Technology,  declares,  as  the  result  of  his  experience,  as 
already  stated,  that  the  scientific  methods  of  the  manual 
training  school  are  twenty  times  as  valuable  to  the  stu- 
dent as  the  unscientific  methods  of  the  trade-shop  are  to 
the  apprentice.  But  we  have  shown  in  a  former  chapter 
that  the  training  of  the  trade-shops  of  England,  during 
the  past  one  hundred  and  fifty  years,  has  been  better  than 
that  of  the  English  schools  and  universities ;  in  a  word, 
that  England  is  more  indebted  for  her  greatness  to  her 
apprentice  system  than  to  her  school  system.  It  follows 
that  the  school  system  of  England  must  have  been  almost 
indescribably  poor. 

That  the  system  of  popular  education  in  the  United 
States,  which  is  much  more  comprehensive,  and  presum- 
ably better,  than  that  of  England,  is  very  poor  indeed  in 
results,  is  shown  by  the  statistics  of  railway  and  mercan- 
tile disasters ;  and  it. is  scarcely  necessary  to  remark  that 
these  disasters  show  prevailing  methods  of  education  to 
be  as  defective  morally  as  they  are  mentally.  The  rea- 
son of  this  is  that,  being  automatic,  they  lead  neither  to 
the  discovery  of  truth  nor  to  the  detection  of  error.  It 
is  easy  to  juggle  with  words,  to  argue  in  a  circle,  to  make 
the  worse  appear  the  better  reason,  and  to  reach  false 
conclusions  which  wear  a  plausible  aspect.  But  it  is  not 
so  with  things.  If  the  cylinder  is  not  tight  the  steam- 
engine  is  a  lifeless  mass  of  iron  of  no  value  whatever.  A 
flaw  in  the  wheel  of  the  locomotive  wrecks  the  train. 
Through  a  defective  flue  in  the  chimney  the  house  is  set 
on  fire.  A  lie  in  the  concrete  is  always  hideous ;  like 


AUTOMATIC  AND  SCIENTIFIC  EDUCATION.  335 

murder,  it  will  out.  Hence  it  is  that  the  mind  is  liable 
to  fall  into  grave  errors  until  it  is  fortified  by  the  wise 
counsel  of  the  practical  hand. 

It  is  obvious  that  the  reason  of  the  demand  for  the 
manual  element  in  education  is  not  so  much  that  indus- 
trial interests  require  to  be  promoted,  as  that  mental  op- 
erations may  be  rendered  more  true,  and  hence  more  sci- 
entific. What  we  need  more  than  we  need  a  better  class 
of  mechanics  is  a  better  class  of  men — men  of  a  higher 
grade  both  morally  and  intellectually.  The  study  of 
things  so  steadies  and  balances  the  mind  that  the  atten- 
tion being  once  turned  in  that  direction  great  results 
soon  follow,  as  witness,  the  history  of  discovery  and  in- 
vention in  England. 

The  world  moves  very  fast  industrially,  but  very  slow 
morally  and  intellectually.  Mechanics  stand  the  test  of 
scrutiny  far  better  than  merchants.  Civil  engineers  and 
architects  are  more  competent  than  railway  presidents, 
lawyers,  judges,  and  legislators.  The  reason  of  this  fact 
is  that  mechanics,  civil  engineers,  and  architects  are  edu- 
cated practically  in  the  world's  shops  and  the  world's 
technical  schools.  They  are  trained  in  things,  while  mer- 
chants, railway  presidents,  lawyers,  judges,  and  legislators 
have  only  the  automatic  word-training  of  the  schools.  It 
is  notorious  that  criminals  are  not  punished  in  this  coun- 
try. Suppose  there  were  such  a  failure  of  bridges  as  there 
is  of  justice.  That  is  to  say,  suppose  eight-tenths  of  the 
bridges  constructed,  whether  for  railway  or  other  pur- 
poses, should  fall  within  a  few  months  of  their  comple- 
tion. What  would  be  thought  of  the  technical  schools 
whence  the  civil  engineers  graduate  ? 

Ninety-seven  merchants  in  a  hundred  fail.  Suppose 
ninety-seven  buildings  in  a  hundred,  constructed  under 


226  MANUAL  TBAINING. 

the  direction  of  architects,  should  tumble  down  over  the 
heads  of  their  occupants  six  months  after  their  erection. 
The  education  of  the  architects  would  no  doubt  be  regard- 
ed as  defective. 

Buckle  says  of  English  legislation,  "The  best  laws 
which  have  been  passed  have  been  those  by  which  some 
former  laws  were  repealed."*  It  will  be  admitted  that 
the  same  is  true  of  American  legislation,  f  In  other 
words,  the  average  legislator  is  wiser  in  the  statutes  he 

*  "History  of  Civilization  in  England,"  p.  200.  By  Henry  Thom- 
as Buckle.  New  York :  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  1864. 

"  In  a  paper  read  to  the  Statistical  Society  in  May,  1873,  Mr.  Jan- 
son,  Vice-president  of  the  Law  Society,  stated  that  from  the  statute  of 
Merton  (20  Henry  III.)  to  the  end  of  1872  there  had  been  passed 
18,110  public  acts,  of  which  he  estimated  that  four- fifths  had  been 
wholly  or  partially  repealed.  He  also  stated  that  the  number  of  pub- 
lic acts  repealed  wholly  or  in  part,  or  amended,  during  the  three  years 
1870-71-72  had  been  3532,  of  which  2759  had  been  totally  repealed. 
To  see  whether  this  rate  of  repeal  has  continued  I  have  referred  to 
the  annually  issued  volumes  of  the  '  Public  General  Statutes '  for  the 
last  three  sessions.  Saying  nothing  of  the  numerous  amended  acts, 
the  result  is  that  in  the  last  three  sessions  there  have  been  totally  re- 
pealed, separately  or  in  groups,  650  acts  belonging  to  the  present  reign, 
besides  many  of  preceding  reigns.  .  .  . 

"Seeing,  then,  that  bad  legislation  means  injury  to  men's  lives, 
judge  what  must  be  the  total  amount  of  mental  distress,  physical 
pain,  and  raised  mortality  which  these  thousands  of  repealed  Acts  of 
Parliament  represent." — "The  Man  versus  the  State,"  pp.  50,  51.  By 
Herbert  Spencer.  New  York:  D.  Appleton  &  Co. 

f  "  So  thoroughly  have  the  conscience  and  intelligence  of  the  North 
apprehended  these  facts  [neglect  to  educate  and  enlighten  the  freed- 
men],  that  while  the  Nation  has  done  nothing  they  have  given  in  pri- 
vate charity,  intended  to  remedy  this  evil,  nearly  a  million  dollars  a 
year  for  nearly  twenty  years.  This  is  the  instinct  of  a  people  versus 
the  stupidity  of  their  legislators. ...  Of  the  true  character  of  the  South 
he  [the  author]  was,  like  all  his  class,  profoundly  ignorant,  almost  as 
ignorant  as  the  men  who  made  the  Nation's  laws." — "An  Appeal  to 
Caesar,"  pp.  52,  56.  By  A.  W.  Tourgee. 


AUTOMATIC  AND  SCIENTIFIC  EDUCATION.  227 

repeals  than  in  the  bills  he  enacts.  What  if  the  incom- 
petency  of  the  legislator  were  paralleled  by  that  of  the 
machinist  ?  Suppose  ninety-seven  in  every  one  hundred 
locomotives  should  break  down  on  the  "trial-trip,"  and 
be  returned  to  the  builder's  shop  for  remanufacture. 
Such  a  result  would  be  an  impeachment  of  the  education 
of  the  locomotive  builder. 

Ninety -seven  in  every  hundred  boys  who  graduate 
from  the  public  schools  and  embark  in  mercantile  pur- 
suits fail.  Suppose  ninety -seven  in  every  hundred 
watches  made  in  the  American  watch  factories  should 
prove  to  be  worthless.  The  watch  companies  would, 
no  doubt,  soon  be  in  the  hands  of  the  sheriff.  But,  as 
a  matter  of  fact,  the  Elgin  National  Watch  Company, 
for  example,  makes  twelve  hundred  watches  a  day,  and 
each  and  every  one  of  them  is  an  almost  perfect  time- 
keeper. 

There  is,  then,  no  such  failure  of  the  arts  as  there  is  of 
justice ;  no  such  failure  of  mechanics  as  of  merchants ;  no 
such  failure  of  locomotives  and  watches  as  of  legislation. 
It  follows  that  the  education  of  artisans  is  better,  more 
scientific,  than  that  of  merchants,  judges,  lawyers,  and 
legislators.  And  this  is  a  very  significant  fact  when  it 
is  considered  that  the  State  does  much  for  education  in 
belles-lettres  and  scarcely  anything  for  education  in  the 
arts  and  sciences.* 


*  The  reason  why  statutes  fail  more  frequently  than  steam-engines 
and  bridges  is  not  wholly  because  the  legislator  has  to  deal  with  hu- 
man nature  and  the  mechanic  with  inanimate  matter.  Steam  and 
electricity  are  subtle  forces,  but  man  has  quickly  mastered  them  and 
successfully  applied  them  to  a  variety  of  uses. 

It  is  not  to  the  interest  of  any  one  that  the  machinist  should  make 
a  defective  locomotive,  for  example  ;  but  it  is  often  to  the  interest  of 

10* 


228  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

some  one  that  the  legislator  should  enact  vicious  laws.  Vicious 
statutes  are  enacted  with  a  design  to  injure  the  public  in  order  that 
certain  individuals  may  be  benefited  thereby. 

If  the  mind  should  act  as  honestly  in  legislation  as  the  hand  does 
in  construction,  statutes  would  not  have  to  be  repealed  yearly. 

We  have  fallen  into  the  habit  of  regarding  education  as  a  polite 
'  accomplishment  having  very  little  to  do  with  the  real  business  of 
life ;  but  this  is  not  the  fact.  Education  begins  In  the  cradle  and 
continues  through  life ;  and  it  makes  the  man  what  he  is.  If  he 
goes  to  the  penitentiary  it  is  his  education  that  sends  him  there.  If 
he  is  sent  to  the  General  Assembly  of  the  State  or  to  the  Congress  of 
the  Nation,  and  there  helps  to  enact  vicious  laws,  it  is  his  education 
that  is  responsible  for  such  laws.  If  the  man  as  a  citizen  sells  his 
franchise  at  the  polls,  or  his  vote  in  the  legislative  hall,  for  money,  it 
is  the  education  he  has  received  that  is  responsible  for  his  baseness. 


AUTOMATIC  AND  SCIENTIFIC  EDUCATION.  229 


CHAPTER  XX. 

AUTOMATIC  CONTRASTED  WITH  SCIENTIFIC  EDU- 
CATION— Continued. 

The  Training  of  the  Merchant,  the  Lawyer,  the  Judge,  and  the  Leg- 
islator contrasted  with  that  of  the  Artisan. — The  Training  of  the 
Merchant  makes  him  Selfish,  and  Selfishness  breeds  Dishonesty.— 
Professional  Men  become  Speculative  Philosophers,  and  test  their 
Speculations  by  Consciousness. — The  Artisan  forgets  Self  in  the 
Study  of  Things.— The  Search  after  Truth.— the  Story  of  Palissy. 
— The  Hero  is  the  Normal  Man;  those  who  Marvel  at  his  Acts  are 
abnormally  Developed. — Savonarola  and  John  Brown, — The  New 
England  System  of  Education  contrasted  with  that  of  the  South. — 
American  Statesmanship — its  Failure  in  an  Educational  Point  of 
View. — Why  the  State  Provides  for  Education  ;  to  protect  Prop- 
erty.— The  British  Government  and  the  Land  Question. — The  Thor- 
oughness of  the  Training  given  by  Schools  of  Mechanic  Art  and  In- 
stitutes of  Technology  as  shown  in  Things. — Story  of  the  Emperor 
of  Germany  and  the  Needle-maker. — The  Iron  Bridge  lasts  a  Cen- 
tury, the  Act  of  the  Legislator  wears  out  in  a  Year. — The  Cause 
of  the  Failures  of  Justice  and  Legislation. — The  best  Law  is  the 
Act  that  Repeals  a  Law ;  but  the  Act  of  the  Inventor  is  never  Re- 
pealed.— Things  the  Source  and  Issue  of  Ideas;  hence  the  Neces- 
sity of  Training  in  the  Arts. 

THERE  is  a  cause  for  the  failure  of  the  merchant,  the 
lawyer,  the  judge,  and  the  legislator,  as  well  as  for  the 
success  of  the  artisan.  And  the  cause  must  be  sought  in 

O 

the  courses  of  training,  respectively,  of  the  two  classes. 
Let  us  assume  that  the  artisan  and  the  merchant,  the 
lawyer,  the  judge,  and  the  legislator,  graduate  at  the  same 
time  from  the  public  high  school  or  from  Harvard  or 
Yale.  The  merchant  at  once  begins  to  trade,  to  buy  and 
sell.  He  concerns  himself  with  things  only  as  they  have 


230  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

a  value,  either  naturally  arising  from  the  law  of  demand 
and  supply,  or  arbitrarily  imposed  by  circumstances.  His 
consideration  of  the  relations  of  things  is  confined  to  the 
single  question  of  the  percentage  of  profit  which  may 
accrue  to  him  from  traffic  in  them.  These  are  subjective 
processes  of  thought,  and  the  merchant  becomes  absorbed 
in  them  to  the  exclusion  of  all  other  subjects.  It  goes 
without  saying  that  he  becomes  intensely  selfish.  The 
struggle  is  one  of  mercantile  life  or  death — ninety-three 
to  ninety-seven  in  a  hundred  die,  three  to  seven  survive. 

Among  merchants  there  is,  hence,  very  little  thought 
of  the  subject  of  justice,  and  no  effort  to  discover  truth. 
There  must,  at  the  end  of  the  year,  be  a  favorable  bal- 
ance on  the  right  side  of  the  ledger,  or  the  balance  on  the 
wrong  side  unerringly  points  the  way  to  ruin.  This  is 
the  post-school  training  of  the  merchant.  That  neither 
it  nor  his  previous  education  renders  him  skilful  we  know, 
since  he  fails  ninety-three  to  ninety-seven  times  in  a  hun- 
dred trials.  That  subjective  training  does  not  and  never 
can  promote  rectitude  has  been  shown  in  a  former  chap- 
ter of  this  work.  That  merchants  who  compromise  with 
their  creditors,  and  subsequently  accumulate  fortunes,  very 
rarely  repay  the  debt  formerly  forgiven  is  a  notorious 
fact.  A  Chicago  merchant  who  himself  repaid  such  a 
composition  debt  early  in  his  career,  states,  at  the  end  of 
twenty-five  years'  experience,  that  of  compromises  involv- 
ing several  hundred  thousand  dollars,  made  by  him  in  fa- 
vor of  debtors,  not  one  dollar  has  ever  been  repaid. 

Upon  leaving  school  or  college  the  lawyer,  the  judge, 
and  the  legislator  at  once  apply  themselves  to  books ; 
their  subsequent  training  is  exclusively  subjective.  Their 
ideas  receive  color  from  and  are  verified  only  by  refer- 
ence to  consciousness.  Subjective  truths  have  no  rela- 


AUTOMATIC   AND  SCIENTIFIC  EDUCATION.  231 

tions  to  things,  and  hence  are  susceptible  of  verification 
only  through  consciousness.  They  are,  therefore,  mere 
speculations  after  all,  often  ingenious  but  always  prob- 
lematical. The  result  of  such  training  is  selfishness — 
selfishness  of  a  very  intense  character ;  and,  as  has  been 
already  shown,  selfishness  is  merely  another  name  for  in- 
justice. 

On  the  other  hand  the  artisan  devotes  himself  to  things. 
His  training  is  exclusively  objective.  His  ideas  flow  out- 
ward ;  he  studies  the  nature  and  relations  of  things.  In 
this  investigation  he  forgets  self  because  his  life  becomes 
a  grand  struggle  in  search  of  truth  ;  and  the  discovery  of 
truth  in  things,  if  not  easy,  is  ultimately  sure  of  attain- 
ment, since  harmony  is  its  sign,  and  its  opposite,  the  false, 
is  certain  of  exposure  through  its  native  deformity ;  for 
however  alluring  a  lie  may  be  made  to  appear  in  the  ab- 
stract, in  the  concrete  it  is  an  unmasked  abomination. 

From  the  false  the  artisan  intuitively  shrinks.  He  can 
only  succeed  by  finding  the  truth,  and  embodying  it  in 
some  useful  or  beautiful  thing  which  will  contribute  to  the 
comfort  or  pleasure  of  man.  Hence  his  watchword  is  util- 
ity, or,  beauty  in  utility.  Of  the  engrossing  character  of 
this  struggle  the  story  of  Bernard  Palissy  affords  a  splen- 
did illustration.  Palissy  was  an  artist,  a  student,  and  a 
naturalist,  but  poor,  and  compelled  to  follow  the  profes- 
sion of  surveying  to  support  his  family.  At  the  age  of 
thirty  he  saw  an  enamelled  cup,  of  Italian  manufacture, 
which  fired  his  ambition.  Ignorant  of  the  nature  of 
clays,  he  nevertheless  resolved  to  discover  enamel,  and 
entered  upon  a  laborious  course  of  investigation  and  ex- 
periment with  that  end  in  view.  After  many  years  of 
Herculean  effort  and  indescribable  privation,  which  beg- 
gared and  estranged  his  family,  and  rendered  him  an  ob- 


332  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

ject  of  ridicule  among  his  neighbors,  he  achieved  a  grand 
success.  At  a  critical  period  of  his  experiments,  in  the 
face  of  the  indignant  protests  of  his  almost  starving  fam- 
ily, having  exhausted  his  credit  to  the  last  penny,  he  con- 
signed to  the  flames  of  his  furnace  the  chairs,  tables,  and 
floors  of  his  humble  cottage,  and  continued  to  watch  his 
chemicals  with  all-absorbing  attention,  while  his  wife  in 
despair  rushed  into  the  streets  and  made  loud  proclama- 
tion of  the  scandal. 

But  Palissy  was  more  than  a  potter ;  he  was  a  Chris- 
tian, a  philosopher,  and  an  austere  reformer.  Notwith- 
standing he  had  been  petted  and  patronized  as  an  inge- 
nious artisan  by  the  royal  family  of  France,  he  was  final- 
ly cast  into  prison  under  charge  of  heresy.  It  was  there 
that  the  remarkable  interview  with  King  Henry  III.  oc- 
curred, which  immortalized  Palissy  as  a  hero.  "  My  good 
man,"  said  the  king,  "you  have  been  forty-five  years  in 
the  service  of  the  queen,  my  mother,  or  in  mine,  and  we 
have  suffered  you  to  live  in  your  own  religion,  amid  all 
the  executions  and  the  massacres.  Now,  however,  I  am 
so  pressed  by  the  Guise  party  and  my  people  that  I  have 
been  compelled  in  spite  of  myself  to  imprison  these  two 
poor  women  and  you."  "  Sire,"  answered  the  old  man, 
"the  count  came  yesterday  on  your  part,  promising  life 
to  these  two  sisters  upon  condition  of  the  sacrifice  of 
their  virtue.  They  replied  that  they  would  now  be  mar- 
tyrs to  their  own  honor  as  well  as  for  the  honor  of  God. 
You  have  said  several  times  that  you  feel  pity  for  me ; 
but  it  is  I  who  pity  you,  who  have  said, i  I  am  compelled !' 
That  is  not  speaking  like  a  king.  These  girls  and  I,  who 
have  part  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven — we  will  teach  you 
to  talk  royally.  The  Guisarts,  all  your  people,  and  your- 
self, cannot  compel  a  potter  to  bow  down  to  images  of 


AUTOMATIC  AND  SCIENTIFIC   EDUCATION.  233 

clay  !"*  And  Palissy  the  potter  and  heretic,  at  the  age  of 
seventy,  died  in  the  Bastile,  proudly  defying  a  king. 

The  more  absorbing  the  struggle  for  the  discovery  of 
truth  becomes,  the  less  room  there  is  in  the  mind  of  man 
for  selfishness ;  and  as  selfishness  recedes,  justice  assumes 
its  appropriate  place  as  the  controlling  element  in  human 
conduct.  The  hero  is  an  honest  man,  that's  all. 

' '  Though  love  repine,  and  reason  chafe, 
There  comes  a  voice  without  reply; 
'Tis  man's  perdition  to  be  safe, 
When  for  the  truth  he  ought  to  die. " 

If  all  men  were  heroes — honest — there  would  be  no  oc- 
casion for  heroism.  If  all  education  can  be  made  scien- 
tific, all  men  can  be  made  honest.  The  struggle  to  find 
truth  is  more  natural  than  the  struggle  to  succeed  re- 
gardless of,  or  against,  truth.  The  reason  why  what  we 
call  heroism  appears  so  grand  is  this :  the  standards  of 
public  judgment  become  so  perverted  by  long  custom  in 
the  abuse  of  truth  that  normal  conduct  appears  strange. 

When  Palissy  burned  his  chairs  and  tables  in  the  cause 
of  art,  his  family  and  his  neighbors  derided  him,  and  de- 
nounced him  as  a  madman,  and  in  prison  the  king  urged 
him  as  a  friend  to  save  himself  from  death  by  recanting 
his  assertion  of  the  right  of  freedom  of  religious  opinion. 
Palissy  was  a  hero  neither  to  his  family,  his  friends,  nor 
his  king;f  but  he  was  right,  and  his  discovery  and  his 

*  "Palissy  the  Potter,"  Vol.  II.,  pp.  187, 188.  By  Henry  Morley. 
Boston :  Ticknor,  Eeed  &  Fields,  1853. 

f  "  I  had  nothing  but  reproaches  in  the  house  ;  in  place  of  consola- 
tion, they  gave  me  maledictions.  My  neighbors,  who  had  heard  of 
this  affair  [the  failure  of  an  experiment],  said  that  I  was  nothing  but 
a  fool,  and  that  I  might  have  had  more  than  eight  francs  for  the 
tilings  that  I  had  broken  ;  and  all  this  talk  was  brought  to  mingle 


234  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

firmness  rendered  him  immortal.  We  now  know,  three 
hundred  years  farther  down  the  course  of  time,  that  Pa- 
lissy's  struggle  over  the  furnace  in  the  cause  of  art  was 
mentally  and  morally  normal,  while  the  opposition  he 
encountered  was  abnormal ;  and  that  his  defiance  of  the 
king  was  mentally  and  morally  normal,  while  his  perse- 
cution was  abnormal  and  cruel. 

Palissy's  mind  was  trained  naturally  in  the  direction 
of  rectitude,  while  the  minds  of  the  millions  of  men  who 
permitted  him' to  die  unfriended,  a  prisoner  in  the  Bas- 
tile,  were  developed  unnaturally.  Their  education  was 
unscientific,  and  their  characters  were  hence  deformed. 
The  one  symmetrical  character  was  that  of  Palissy,  the 
lover  of  truth,  who  was  ready  to  starve,  if  need  be,  for 
his  art,  and  ready  to  die  for  his  faith.  The  thin  ranks 
of  the  so-called  heroes  of  the  ages  of  history  constitute 
the  measure  of  the  poverty  of  the  systems  of  education 
that  have  prevailed  among  mankind.  These  so-called 
heroes  are  merely  normally  developed  men  —  men  who 
search  for  the  truth,  and  having  found  it,  honor  it  always 
and  everywhere.  They  are  peculiar  to  no  clime,  to  no 
country,  to  no  age.  They  are  cosmopolitan,  and  the  fact 
that  they  are  honored  after  death  by  succeeding  ages  is 
proof  positive  of  the  world's  progress,  or  rather  of  the 
progress  of  moral  ideas. 

The  civilization  of  Italy  in  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth 
century  presents  the  most  violent  possible  contrast  to 
that  of  America  in  the  last  half  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. But  the  one  produced  Savonarola,  the  hater  of 
abuses  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  and  the  other 


with  ray  grief." — "Palissy  the  Potter,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  190.     By  Henry 
Morley.    Boston  :  Ticknor,  Reed  &  Fields,  1853. 


AUTOMATIC  AND  SCIENTIFIC   EDUCATION.  235 

John  Brown,  the  stern,  uncompromising  hater  of  human 
bondage.  Four  hundred  years  is  a  long  period  in  the 
history  of  civilization,  but  the  priest  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury, and  the  farmer  of  the  nineteenth,  are  as  near  of  kin 
in  spirit  as  if  they  had  been  born  of  the  same  mother,  and 
reared  in  the  same  moral  atmosphere. 

The  true  hero  is  always  inexorable — as  Savonarola  in 
the  presence  of  the  majesty  of  a  dying,  remorse-stricken, 
half-repentant  prince,  and  John  Brown  in  the  presence 
of  his  exultant  but  half-terrified  captors.  When  Lorenzo 
di  Medici  lay  terror-stricken,  on  his  death-bed,  Savonarola 
demanded  of  the  dying  prince,  as  the  price  of  absolu- 
tion, a  restoration  of  the  liberties  of  the  people  of  Flor- 
ence ;  and  this  being  refused,  the  priest  departed  without 
one  word  of  peace. 

When  John  Brown,  wounded  and  bleeding,  lay  a  cap- 
tive at  Harper's  Ferry,  listening  to  the  taunts  of  angry 
Virginians,  he  said,  calmly  and  firmly,  "  You  had  better 
— all  you  people  of  the  South — prepare  yourselves  for  a 
settlement  of  this  question.  It  must  come  up  for  settle- 
ment sooner  than  you  are  prepared  for  it,  and  the  sooner 
you  commence  that  preparation  the  better  for  you.  You 
may  dispose  of  me  very  easily — I  am  nearly  disposed  of 
now — but  this  question  is  still  to  be  settled — this  negro 
question,  I  mean.  The  end  of  that  is  not  yet."* 

There  is  nothing  grander  in  history,  whether  real  or 
mythological,  than  the  picture  of  the  humble  priest  of 
the  fifteenth  century,  with  no  power  except  the  justice 
of  his  cause,  shaking  thrones  and  making  proud  prelates, 
and  even  the  Pope  himself,  tremble  with  fear !  And  the 


*  "The  Public  Life  of  Captain  John  Brown,"  p.  283.     By  John 
Redpath.     Boston  :  Thayer  &  Eldridge,  1860. 


236  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

exact  parallel  of  this  picture  is  found,  four  hundred  years 
down  the  stream  of  time,  in  the  person  of  the  farmer, 
John  Brown,  defying  the  Constitution,  law,  and  public 
sentiment  of  his  country  in  the  interest  simply  of  the 
cause  of  justice. 

It  has  been  shown  through  citations  from  the  Walton 
report,  as  well  as  by  the  opinions  of  many  competent 
witnesses,  that  the  New  England  system  of  education, 
whether  correct  in  theory  or  not,  is,  in  actual  operation, 
very  defective.  But  at  the  time  of  its  establishment  it 
was  the  best  system  in  existence.  To  it  this  country  owes 
the  quality  of  its  civilization.  The  neglect  of  education 
by  the  Government  of  the  United  States  is  the  most  as- 
tonishing fact  of  its  history.  It  is  incomprehensible  how, 
with  a  comparatively  excellent  educational  system  in  op- 
eration, and  in  full  view  in  the  New  England,  Middle, 
and  Western  States,  the  National  Government  could  calm- 
ly and  inactively  contemplate  the  almost  entire  neglect 
of  popular  education  in  the  States  of  the  South,  and  ig- 
nore, from  year  to  year,  the  steadily  accumulating  hor- 
rors of  ignorance  and  vice  which  were  destined  to  lead 
to  such  deplorable  political  and  social  results. 

The  difference  between  the  civilization  of  New  Eng- 
land and  that  of  South  Carolina,  for  example,  is  exactly 
measured  by  the  difference  between  their  respective  edu- 
cational systems.  New  England  undertook,  at  a  very 
early  day,  to  educate  every  class  of  its  citizens ;  South 
Carolina  made  a  monopoly  of  education,  confining  it  to 
a  single  class. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  the  American  statesmanship 
of  the  whole  period  of  our  history  has  been  scarcely  less 
short-sighted  than  that  of  England  under  the  Georges, 
which  resulted  in  saddling  upon  her  people  a  debt  that 


AUTOMATIC  AND  SCIENTIFIC  EDUCATION.  237 

they  can  never  pay.  If  England  had  provided  a  com- 
prehensive and  scientific  system  of  popular  education  at 
the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  who  doubts  that 
the  wars  through  which  her  debt  was  incurred  would 
have  been  averted?  If  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  had  compelled  the  adoption  of  a  scientific  educa- 
tional system  by  the  States  of  the  South,  who  doubts 
that  slavery  would  have  peaceably  passed  away,  and  the 
occasion  for  war  passed  away  with  it  ? 

The  conspicuous  failure  of  American  statesmanship 
consists  in  a  failure  to  appreciate  the  value  of  scientific 
education.  It  shows  that  good  citizenship  is  impossible 
without  good  education — for  good  education  and  good 
citizenship  are  convertible  terms.  And  it  is  easy  to  show, 
by  the  past,  that  to  hesitate  on  the  subject  of  education  is 
to  be  lost.* 

Why  do  we  provide  for  popular  education  ?  Is  it  out 
of  pure  generosity  that  the  rich  citizen  consents  to  be 
taxed  to  pay  for  the  education  of  his  poor  neighbor's 
children?  Does  the  man  who  has  no  children  willingly 
surrender  a  portion  of  his  estate  for  the  education  of  the 
children  of  others,  as  an  act  of  benevolence  ?  Not  at  all. 
There  is  no  security  for  property  in  a  community  devoid 
of  education  and  consequent  intelligence.  Intelligence 
alone  confers  upon  property  a  sacred  character.  In  one 

*  "  If  you  examine  into  the  history  of  rogues,  you  will  find  that  they 
are  as  truly  manufactured  articles  as  anything  else,  and  it  is  just  be- 
cause our  present  system  of  political  economy  gives  so  large  a  stimu- 
lus to  that  manufacture  that  you  may  know  it  to  be  a  false  one.  We 
had  better  seek  for  a  system  which  will  develop  honest  men  than  for 
one  which  will  deal  cunningly  with  vagabonds.  Let  us  reform  our 
schools,  and  we  shall  find  little  reform  needed  in  our  prisons." — 
"Unto  This  Last,"  p.  50.  By  John  Ruskin.  New  York:  John 
Wiley  &  Sons,  1883. 


238  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

of  two  ways  only  can  property  be  rendered  secure  in  the 
owner's  hands.  It  may  be  protected  by  a  hired  soldiery, 
through  the  force  of  arms,  or  through  the  force  of  a  pub- 
lic sentiment  enlightened  by  education.  The  reason  why 
the  poor  but  educated  citizen  would  not  lay  violent  hands 
on  the  rich  citizen's  property  is  the  fact  that  he  indulges 
the  intelligent  hope  of  himself  acquiring  property.  Be- 
sides, the  morals  of  a  community  are  in  the  ratio  of  its 
intelligence.  The  indulgence  of  hope  promotes  self-es- 
teem, and  self-respect,  and  these  qualities  react  upon  the 
moral  nature. 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  while  one  of  the 
main  purposes  of  all  governments  is  to  preserve  property 
rights,  nearly  all  the  governments  of  history  have  been 
shattered  in  pieces  in  the  effort  to  fulfil  this  function  of 
their  existence.  It  may  be  said  that  there  is  never  any- 
thing sacred  about  property  unless  it  is  honestly  acquired. 
All  the  force  of  our  own  government  was  exerted  in  a 
vain  effort  to  protect  property  in  slaves.  England  has 
been  compelled  to  disturb  the  property  rights  of  the 
Irish  landlords,  and  this  is  only  the  prelude  to  an  attack 
upon  the  property  rights  of  her  own  landlords.  It  was 
the  ignorance  of  the  English  people  hundreds  of  years 
ago  that  permitted  the  establishment  of  a  land  system 
which  is  now  about  to  crumble  in  pieces,  and  in  its  fall 
wreck  certain  property  rights. 

There  is  nothing  sacred  about  property  unless  it  is  hon- 
estly acquired  and  honestly  held  ;  and  property  can  only 
be  honestly  acquired  and  honestly  held,  in  communities 
intelligent  enough  to  guard  its  acquisition,  and  continued 
possession,  by  just  and  adequate  laws.  It  follows  that  edu- 
cation is  the  sole  bulwark  of  the  State,  and  so  of  property. 

The  question  of  the  first  consequence  is,  therefore, 


AUTOMATIC  AND  SCIENTIFIC  EDUCATION.  239 

always,  What  is  the  best  system  of  education  ?  It  is  ob- 
vious, also,  that  the  subject  of  cost  should  not  enter  into 
the  discussion ;  that  the  best  education  is  the  cheapest, 
is  an  indisputable  proposition.  We  have  seen  that  the 
New  England  system  of  education,  which  has  spread  over 
the  whole  country,  is  very  much  better  than  the  system 
which  prevailed  in  those  States  of  the  Union  where  slav- 
ery continued  to  exist  down  to  1864.  But  we  have  seen, 
also,  that  that  system  is  very  defective ;  that  it  is  auto- 
matic, and  hence  not  natural,  not  practical,  not  scientific. 
It  does  not  produce  great  merchants,  great  lawyers,  great 
judges,,  or  great  legislators.  That  it  does  not,  is  abun- 
dantly shown  by  the  fact  that  in  mercantile  life  there  are 
ninety-three  to  ninety-seven  failures  in  every  one  hun- 
dred experiments ;  by  the  fact  that  there  is  notoriously  a 
general  failure  of  justice ;  and  by  the  fact  that  here,  as  in 
Great  Britain,  the  chief  business  of  statesmen  is  the  un- 
doing of  vicious  legislation. 

There  is  a  system  of  training  which  produces  a  much 
higher  average  of  culture  than  that  of  the  public  schools 
and  the  universities.  We  allude  to  the  training  received 
by  the  students  of  special  mechanical  and  technical  insti- 
tutions, and  by  the  apprentices  in  trade-shops.  The  proof 
of  this  is  found  in  the  world's  railways,  ships,  harbors, 
docks,  canals,  bridges,  telegraph  and  telephone  lines,  and 
in  a  thousand  and  one  other  manifestations  of  skill  in 
art.  In  the  adaptation  of  means  to  an  end,  and  in  nicety 
of  construction,  the  mechanic  and  the  civil  engineer  show, 
in  innumerable  ways,  with  what  thoroughness  both  their 
minds  and  their  hands  have  been  trained.  If  mercantile 
operations  were  governed  by  such  excellent  rules  in  pro- 
jection, and  by  such  precision  in  execution,  ninety-seven 
merchants  in  a  hundred  would  not  go  to  the  wall. 


240  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

A  story  has  lately  gone  the  round  of  the  public  prints 
to  the  effect  that,  during  a  visit  to  a  needle  factory  by  the 
Emperor  of  Germany,  a  workman  begged  a  hair  of  his 
head,  bored  an  eye  in  it,  threaded  it,  and  handed  it  back 
to  the  monarch,  who  had  expressed  surprise  that  eyes 
could  be  bored  in  the  smaller  sizes  of  needles.  It  does 
not  matter  whether  or  not  this  story  is  literally  true ;  it 
illustrates  the  delicacy  of  modern  mechanical  operations. 
Hundreds  of  similar  illustrations  might  be  given,  show- 
ing how  marvellously  skilful  the  hand  has  become. 

It  is  not  claimed  that  the  hand  is  a  nicer  instrument 
than  the  mind.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  in  drilling  the  hole 
in  the  hair  the  mind  and  the  hand  work  together — 
the  mind  directs  the  hand,  we  will  say.  The  mind  de- 
vises or  invents  a  watch — every  wheel,  pinion,  screw,  and 
spring — and  directs  the  hand  how  to  make  it,  and  how  to 
set  it  up,  and  it  ticks  off  the  time.  Why  does  the  mind 
succeed  so  admirably  when  it  employs  the  hand  to  exe- 
cute its  will,  but  so  ill  when  it  devises  and  attempts,  it- 
self, to  execute  ?  How  is  it  that  the  mind  invents  a  watch 
which,  being  made  by  the  hand,  records  the  hour  to  a 
second,  ninety-nine  times  in  a  hundred,  but  fails  ninety- 
three  to  ninety-seven  times  in  a  hundred  to  devise  and 
carry  into  execution  a  mercantile  venture?  How  is  it 
that  the  mind  invents  a  steam-engine  consisting  of  a  hun- 
dred pieces,  so  that,  each  piece  being  made  by  a  different 
hand,  the  machine  shall,  when  set  up,  ninety-nine  times 
in  a  hundred,  at  once  perform  the  work  of  five  hundred 
horses  without  strain  or  friction,  but  when  it  grapples  with 
law  and  fact  in  the  chair  of  lawj^er  or  judge  produces 
a  most  pitiable  wreck  of  justice?  How  is  it  that  the 
mind  devises  and  the  hand  executes  with  such  nice  adap- 
tation of  means  to  the  end  in  view,  a  bridge,  that  re- 


AUTOMATIC   AND  SCIENTIFIC  EDUCATION.  241 

sembles  a  spider's  web,  and  yet  bears  thousands  of  tons 
and  endures  for  ages,  but  when  it  undertakes  to  legis- 
late evolves  statutes  that  wear  out  in  a  year  ?  The  first 
iron  bridge  constructed  spanned  the  Severn,  in  England. 
It  was  opened  to  traffic  a  hundred  years  ago,  but  it  is 
still  a  stanch  structure  likely  to  stand  for  centuries. 
Where  are  the  English  statutes  of  that  time  ?  Repealed 
to  give  place  to  a  long  line  of  others  which  in  turn  have 
been  repealed.  When  the  famous  iron  bridge  across  the 
Severn  was  constructed,  English  legislators  were  passing 
bills  to  compel  the  American  colonies  to  trade  only  with 
the  mother  country,  and  to  tax  them  without  their  con- 
sent. Lord  Sheffield  said,  with  charming  frankness,  that 
the  colonies  were  founded  with  the  sole  view  of  securing 
to  England  a  monopoly  of  their  trade ;  and  Lord  Chat- 
ham declared  that  they  would  not  be  permitted  to  make 
even  a  nail  or  a  horseshoe. 

In  1516  Sir  Thomas  More  denounced  the  criminal  law 
of  England,  declaring  that  "  the  loss  of  money  should  not 
cause  the  loss  of  man's  life."*  But  this  humane  and  en- 
lightened sentiment  had  so  little  weight  that  during  the 
reign  of  Henry  YIII.  seventy-two  thousand  thieves  were 
hanged — at  the  rate  of  two  thousand  a  year.  In  1785 
twenty  men  were  executed  in  London  at  one  time  for 
thefts  of  five  shillings.  The  Lord  Chief-justice  and  the 
Lord  Chancellor  agreed  that  it  would  be  dangerous  to 
repeal  the  law  punishing  pilfering  by  youths.  In  1816 
the  Commons  passed  a  bill  abolishing  capital  punishment 
for  shoplifting — stealing  the  value  of  five  shillings — but 
the  Lords  defeated  it,  Lord  Ellenborough,  Chief-justice, 


*  "The  History  of  England,"  Vol.  II.,  p.  83.     By  Harriet  Mar- 
tineau.     Philadelphia  :  Porter  &  Coates. 


243  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

observing,  peevishly,  "They  want  to  alter  these  laws 
which  a  century  has  proved  to  be  necessary,  and  which 
are  now  to  be  overturned  by  speculation  and  modern 
philosophy."* 

The  cause  of  these  failures — of  mercantile  ventures,  of 
justice,  and  of  legislation  —  is  this :  Subjective  mental 
processes  are  automatic,  and  hence  they  neither  generate 
power  nor  promote  rectitude ;  they  enfeeble  rather  than 
energize  the  brain.  Men  whose  characters  are  formed 
by  such  educational  processes  never  originate  anything. 
They  become  selfish,  they  venerate  the  past,  their  eyes 
are  turned  backward ;  hence,  if  they  sometimes  make  a 
feeble  effort  to  move  forward  they  stumble.  The  law- 
yer, the  judge,  and  the  legislator  are  examples  of  this 
class.  Their  guide-books  are  musty  folios  in  a  dead  lan- 
guage ;  they  look  for  "  precedents  "  in  an  age  whose  civ- 
ilization perished  with  its  language,  and  whose  maxims 
and  rules  of  life  were  long  ago  exploded.  Such  men  can 
be  compelled  to  move  forward  only  by  the  lash  of  public 
opinion.  Buckle,  speaking  of  the  reforms  extorted  from 
the, legislators  of  England,  says, 

"But  it  is  a  mere  matter  of  history  that  our  legisla- 
tors, even  to  the  last  moment,  were  so  terrified  by  the 
idea  of  innovation  that  they  refused  every  reform  until 
the  voice  of  the  people  rose  high  enough  to  awe  them 
into  submission,  and  forced  them  to  grant  what  without 
such  pressure  they  would  by  no  means  have  conceded."f 

On  the  other  hand,  the  inventor,  the  discoverer,  and 
the  artisan  are  always  in  the  advance,  and  always  moving 

*  "The  History  of  England,"  Vol.  II.,  p.  85.  By  Harriet  Mar- 
tineau.  Philadelphia :  Porter  &  Coates. 

f  "History  of  Civilization,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  361.  By  Henry  Thomas 
Buckle.  New  York  :  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  1864. 


AUTOMATIC  AND  SCIENTIFIC   EDUCATION.  343 

forward.  They  never  look  back  except  to  catch  the  vital 
principle  of  the  invention  or  discovery  of  yesterday  for 
utilization  in  the  improved  machine  of  to-day.  Their 
acts  are  never  repealed  because  they  never  become  odi- 
ous. They  never  become  odious  because  they  contain  the 
germs  of  imperishable  truth.  They  are  never  false ;  they 
are  suitable  to  their  time  and  the  stage  of  development ; 
they  constitute  links  in  the  chain  of  progress.  While  the 
legislator  is  horrified  at  the  thought  of  innovation,  the 
inventor,  the  discoverer,  and  the  artisan  are  electrified 
by  the  discovery  of  a  new  principle  in  physics,  and  de- 
lighted at  its  application  in  a  new  invention,  and  its 
practical  operation  in  a  new  and  useful  machine. 

The  difference  in  effects  upon  the  mental  and  moral 
nature,  between  purely  mental  training  and  mental  and 
manual  training  combined,  is  susceptible  of  logical  ex- 
planation. It  is  only  in  things  that  the  truth  stands 
clearly  revealed,  and  only  in  things  that  the  false  is  sure 
of  exposure.*  Hence  exclusively  mental  training  stops 
far  short  of  the  objective  point  of  true  education.  For 
if  it  be  true  that  the  last  analysis  of  education  is  art, 
progress  can  find  expression  only  in  things — in  the  work 
of  men's  hands.  And  it  is  true ;  for  ideas  are  mere  vain 
speculations  until  they  are  embodied  in  things.  Nor  is 


*  "  To  know  the  truth  it  is  necessary  to  do  the  truth." .  .  . 

"We  rightly  seek  the  meaning  of  the  abstract  in  the  concrete,  be- 
cause we  cannot  act  in  relation  to  the  abstract,  which  is  only  a  repre- 
sentative sign ;  we  must  give  it  a  concrete  form  in  order  to  make  it  a 
clear  and  distinct  idea  ;  until  we  have  done  so  we  do  not  know  that 
we  really  believe — only  believe  that  we  believe  it.  A  truth  is  best 
certified  to  be  a  truth  when  we  live  it  and  have  ceased  to  talk  about 
it." — "Body  and  Will,"  p.  49.  By  Henry  Maudsley,  M.D.  New 
York :  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  1884. 

11 


244  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

this  materialism  unless  all  civilization  is  material;  for 
the  prime  difference  between  barbarism  and  civilization 
consists  in  the  presence,  in  a  state  of  civilization,  of  more 
things  of  use  and  beauty  than  are  found  in  a  state  of  bar- 
barism. To  exalt  things  is  not  materialistic;  they  are 
both  the  source  and  issue  of  ideas,  and  the  measure  of 
civilization.  Ideas  and  things  are  hence  indissolubly' 
connected ;  and  it  follows  that  any  system  of  education 
which  separates  them  is  radically  defective.*  Exclusive- 
ly mental  training  does  not  produce  a  symmetrical  char- 
acter, because  at  best  it  merely  teaches  the  student  how 
to  think,  and  the  complement  of  thinking  is  acting.  Be- 
fore thoughts  can  have  any  influence  whatever  upon  the 
world  of  mind  and  matter  external  to  the  mind  origi- 
nating them  they  must  be  expressed.  They  may  be  ex- 
pressed feebly,  through  the  voice,  in  words ;  more  dura- 
bly, and  therefore  more  forcibly,  with  the  pen,  on  paper ; 
more  forcibly  still  in  drawing — pictures  of  things ;  and, 
with  the  superlative  degree  of  force,  in  real  things. 
The  object  of  education  is  the  generation  of  power. 

*  "  Prof.  Huxley  seems  to  hold  that  zoology  cannot  be  learned  with 
any  degree  of  sufficiency  unless  the  student  practises  dissection.  In 
support  of  this  position  there  are  strong  reasons.  In  the  first  place, 
the  impression  made  on  the  mind  by  the  actual  objects,  as  seen,  han- 
dled, and  operated  upon,  is  far  beyond  the  efficacy  of  words  or  de- 
scription. And  not  only  is  it  greater,  but  it  is  more  faithful  to  the 
fact.  While  diagrams  have  a  special  value  in  bringing  out  links  of 
connection  that  are  disguised  in  the  actual  objects,  they  can  never 
show  the  things  exactly  as  they  appear  to  our  senses  ;  and  this  full 
and  precise  conception  of  actuality  is  the  most  desirable  form  of 
knowledge  ;  it  is  truth,  the  whole  truth,  and  nothing  but  the  truth. 
Moreover,  it  enables  the  student  to  exercise  a  free  and  independent 
judgment  upon  the  dicta  of  the  teacher." — "Education  as  a  Science," 
p.  303.  By  Alexander  Bain,  LL.D.  New  York:  D.  Appleton  &  Co., 
1884. 


AUTOMATIC  AND  SCIENTIFIC  EDUCATION.  245 

But  to  generate  and  store  up  power,  whether  mental  or 
physical,  or  both,  is  a  waste  of  effort,  unless  the  power  is 
to  be  exerted.  Why  generate  steam  if  there  is  no  engine 
to  be  operated  ?  Steam  may  be  likened  to  an  idea  which 
finds  expression  through  the  engine  —  a  thing.  "Why 
store  the  mind  with  facts  —  historical,  philosophical,  or 
mathematical — which  are  useless  until  applied  to  things, 
if  they  are  not  to  be  applied  to  things  ?  And  if  they  are 
to  be  applied  to  things,  why  not  teach  the  art  of  so  ap- 
plying them  ?  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  system  of  ed- 
ucation which  does  not  do  this  is  one-sided,  incom- 
plete, unscientific.  Rousseau  says,  "Education  itself  is 
certainly  nothing  but  habit."  If  this  be  true,  it  will 
be  conceded  that  the  habit  of  expressing  ideas  in  things 
should  be  formed  in  the  schools,  because  the  chief  way 
in  which  man  is  benefited  is  through  the  expression  of 
ideas  in  things.  The  system  of  education  which  tends  to 
form  this  habit  is  that  of  the  kindergarten  and  that  of 
the  manual  training  school.  These  systems  are  one  in 
principle.  They  are  not  new ;  they  at  least  date  back  to 
Bacon,  who  declared  that  he  would  "  employ  his  utmost 
endeavors  towards  restoring  or  cultivating  a  just  and  le- 
gitimate familiarity  betwixt  the  mind  and  things."  The 
kindergarten  and  the  manual  training  school  exactly  re- 
alize Bacon's  idea.  The  idea  of  the  manual  training 
school  was  in  the  mind  of  Comenius  when  he  said,  "  Let 
things  that  have  to  be  done  be  learned  by  doing  them." 
It  was  in  the  mind  of  Pestalozzi  when  he  said,  "  Educa- 
tion is  the  generation  of  power."  It  was  in  the  mind  of 
Froebel,  not  less  than  the  kindergarten,  when  he  said, 
"  The  end  and  aim  of  all  our  work  should  be  the  harmo- 
nious growth  of  the  whole  being." 
These  are  excellent  definitions  of  education,  and  they 


246  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

are  sequential.  If  things  that  have  to  be  done  are 
learned  by  doing  them,  there  will  be  in  the  course  of  the 
process  a  wholesome  exercise  of  both  body  and  mind, 
and  this  exercise  will  result  in  the  generation  of  power 
— power  to  think  well,  and  to  do  well ;  and  the  process 
being  continued,  the  result  cannot  fail  to  be  the  harmo- 
nious growth  of  the  whole  being.  This  is  scientific,  as 
opposed  to  automatic,  education.* 

*  "Intellectual  progress  is  of  necessity  from  the  concrete  to  the 
abstract.  But  regardless  of  this,  highly  abstract  subjects  such  as 
grammar,  which  should  come  quite  late,  are  begun  quite  early.  Po- 
litical geography,  dead  and  uninteresting  to  a  child,  and  which  should 
be  an  appendage  of  sociological  studies,  is  commenced  betimes,  while 
physical  geography,  comprehensible  and  comparatively  attractive  to 
a  child,  is  in  great  part  passed  over.  Nearly  every  subject  dealt  with 
is  arranged  in  abnormal  order — definitions  and  rules  and  principles 
being  put  first,  instead  of  being  disclosed,  as  they  are  in  the  order  of 
nature,  through  the  study  of  cases.  And  then,  pervading  the  whole, 
is  the  vicious  system  of  rote  learning  —  a  system  of  sacrificing  the 
spirit  to  the  letter.  .  .  . 

"A  leading  fact  in  human  progress  is  that  every  science  is  evolved 
out  of  its  corresponding  art.  It  results  from  the  necessity  we  are 
under,  both  individually  and  as  a  race,  of  reaching  the  abstract  by 
way  of  the  concrete,  that  there  must  be  practice  and  an  accruing 
experience  with  its  empirical  generalizations  before  there  can  be 
science."  —  "Education,"  pp.  61,  124.  By  Herbert  Spencer.  New 
York:  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  1883. 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  SOCIAL  PROBLEM.  347 


CHAPTER  XXI. 
EDUCATION  AND  THE  SOCIAL  PROBLEM— HISTORIC. 

EGYPT  AND  GREECE. 

Fundamental  Propositions. — Selfishness  the  Source  of  Social  Evil; 
Subjective  Education  the  Source  of  Selfishness  and  the  Cause  of 
Contempt  of  Labor;  and  Social  Disintegration  the  Result  of  Con- 
tempt of  Labor  and  the  Useful  Arts. — The  First  Class-distinction 
— the  Strongest  Man  ruled  ;  his  First  Rival,  the  Ingenious  Man. — 
Superstition. — The  Castes  of  India  and  Egypt — how  came  they 
about  ? — Egyptian  Education  based  on  Selfishness. — Rise  of  Egypt 
— her  Career;  her  Fall;  Analysis  thereof. — She  Typifies  all  the 
Early  Nations :  Force  and  Rapacity  above,  Chains  and  Slavery 
below. — Their  Education  consisted  of  Selfish  Maxims  for  the  Gov- 
ernment of  the  Many  by  the  Few,  and  Government  meant  the  Ap- 
propriation of  the  Products  of  Labor. — Analysis  of  Greek  Charac- 
ter— its  Savage  Characteristics. — Greek  Treachery  and  Cruelty. — 
Greek  Venality. — Her  Orators  accepted  Bribes. — Responsibility  of 
Greek  Education  and  Philosophy  for  the  Ruin  of  Greek  Civiliza- 
tion.— Rectitude  wholly  left  out  of  her  Scheme  of  Education. — 
Plato's  Contempt  of  Matter :  it  led  to  Contempt  of  Man  and  all 
his  Works. — Greek  Education  consisted  of  Rhetoric  and  Logic  ;  all 
Useful  Things  were  hence  held  in  Contempt. 

IT  is  a  fundamental  proposition  of  this  work  that  self- 
ishness is  the  essence  of  depravity,  and  hence  the  source 
of  all  social  evil ;  and  in  previous  chapters  it  has  been 
shown,  argumentatively,  that  exclusively  subjective  proc- 
esses of  education  tend,  in  a  high  degree,  to  promote  self- 
ishness. Another  fundamental  proposition  of  this  work 
is  that  the  useful  arts  are  the  true  measure  of  civilization, 
and  that,  as  they  are  the  product  of  labor,  contempt  of 
the  laborer  leads  inevitably  to  social  disintegration  and 


248  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

the  destruction  of  the  State.  If  these  propositions  are 
true,  the  solution  of  all  social  problems  is  to  be  sought 
through  a  radical  change  in  educational  methods.  If 
they  are  true,  it  is  of  the  first  importance  that  they  be 
proved,  not  only  by  argument,  but  by  the  citation  of  such 
facts  of  history  as  bear  upon  the  subject.  Civilization  is 
the  product  of  education.  If  the  education  is  good  the 
product  will  be  good,  if  evil  the  product  will  be  evil.  The 
purpose  of  this  and  the  four  following  chapters  is,  there- 
fore, to  trace  the  progress  of  civilization,  to  sketch  in  bold 
outline  the  social  history  of  man. 

The  aphorism,  all  men  are  created  equal,  is  a  fine 
phrase,  but  its  truth  is  reserved  for  realization  by  the 
civilization  of  the  future.  A  tendency  to  the  formation 
of  class-distinctions  in  human  society,  whether  savage  or 
civilized,  is  disclosed  by  all  history. 

The  first  class-distinction  sprang  from  the  physical  su- 
periority of  one  savage  over  his  fellows.  He  whose  power- 
ful frame  and  commanding  eye  enabled  him  best  to  cope 
with  the  beasts  of  field  and  forest  became  chief  of  the 
tribe.  He  held  the  first  place  by  virtue  of  his  brawny 
arm,  and  the  less  athletic,  and  more  timid,  became  his 
subjects.  But  he  was  not  long  without  rivals.  His  first 
rival  was  the  dwarf,  or  hunchback,  who,  brooding  moodily 
over  the  misfortune  of  his  deformity,  in  the  seclusion  of 
his  mud  hut,  invented  the  stone  hatchet  and  stone-point- 
ed arrow-head.  His  next  rival  was  the  puny,  pale-faced 
youth  who  converted  pantomimic  signs  and  rude  gest- 
ures into  a  language  of  sounds,  and  so  armed  communi- 
ties with  the  power  of  combination  for  mutual  protection. 
Those  who  soonest  mastered  the  first  alphabet  took  high 
rank  in  the  social  circle,  while  those  who  could  still  only 
make  themselves  understood  by  grimaces  and  gestures 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  SOCIAL  PROBLEM.  349 

fell  to  the  grade  of  ciphers  in  the  body  politic,  and  came 
to  be  looked  upon  as  dunces  in  society.  Thereafter  the 
women,  who  had  previously  been  won  as  wives  by  per- 
sonal prowess,  were  more  equally  parcelled  out.  The 
savage  who  had  invented  the  bow  and  the  arrow  was  ex- 
empted from  the  toils  of  the  chase,  and  from  the  general 
contention  at  the  courting  season ;  a  wife  was  assigned  to 
him,  and  his  tent  was  supplied  with  game  in  the  hope 
that  he  would  invent  some  other  useful  thing.  Thus 
mind  began  to  assert  its  empire  over  matter,  the  division 
of  labor  commenced,  and  a  class-distinction  was  formed. 
Doubtless  the  youth  who  invented  language  cultivated 
superstition  among  the  ignorant,  and  so,  increasing  his  al- 
ready considerable  influence,  secured  the  first  social  rank. 
Hence  the  castes  of  India  and  Egypt,  consisting,  in  their 
order,  of  the  priesthood,  the  army,  the  mercantile  class, 
and,  at  the  bottom  of  the  scale,  the  servile  laborer. 

Of  the  long  period  of  social  progress  from  a  state  of 
savagery  to  the  high  civilization  of  historic  Egypt  the 
record  is  faint  and  fragmentary.  Ages  passed,  during 
which  men  struggled,  and  died,  and  left  no  sign  —  nei- 
ther hieroglyphic  character,  monument,  nor  buried  city. 
Through  what  mental  alchemy  was  the  savage  chief  trans- 
formed, in  the  course  of  hundreds  of  generations,  into  the 
learned,  accomplished,  and  astute  Egyptian  priest,  from 
whose  courtly  lips  Herodotus  received  the  chronicles  of 
the  Egyptian  kings  and  the  romantic  story  of  the  resi- 
dence in  Egypt  of  Helen  of  Troy  ?*  How  were  the  mem- 
bers of  the  savage  tribe  converted,  one  into  an  obedient 
soldier,  another  into  an  adroit,  self-seeking  merchant,  and 


*  "Herodotus, '  Euterpe,' "  II.,  pp.  113-116.    New  York :  Harper  & 
Brothers,  1882. 


250  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

another  into  a  cringing  slave  ?  These  are  secrets  of  an- 
tiquity, destined,  doubtless,  to  remain  forever  unrevealed. 
We  do  know,  however,  that  the  civilization  of  Egypt, 
like  all  other  civilizations,  was  the  product  of  training  or 
education ;  and  the  nature  of  the  education  may  be  in- 
ferred from  the  character  and  fate  of  the  civilization. 

Of  the  Egyptian  system  of  education  selfishness  was 
the  basis.  Given  chains  and  slavery  for  the  lowest  class 
and  there  were  force  and  rapacity  in  the  highest  class.* 
Before  the  free-born  savage  was  reduced  to  slavery  and 
made  to  toil  under  the  lash,  whole  hecatombs  of  lives 
were  sacrificed.  Before  the  mind  of  the  savage  was  de- 
graded to  the  baseness  of  slavery,  his  body,  hacked  and 
hewn,  bent  submissively  to  the  scourge.  For  the  Egyp- 
tian boy  there  was,  doubtless,  a  "  Poor  Richard's  Alma- 
nack," which  taught  him  that  he  must  "  look  to  the  main 
chance ;"  that  "  in  the  race  of  life  the  devil  takes  the 
hindmost ;"  and  that  "  self-preservation  is  the  first  law  of 
nature."  Thus  trained  he  entered  the  ranks  of  the  priest- 
hood, one  of  his  brothers  took  a  commission  in  the  army, 
arid  the  others  embarked  in  mercantile  life.  For  the 
servile  class  there  was  no  education  beyond  their  sever- 
al occupations.  Each  man  was  compelled  to  follow  the 
trade  of  his  father,  to  marry  within  his  own  class,  to  die 
as  he  was  born. 

Ruled  by  the  priests,  and  the  army,  Egypt  grew  rich. 
Her  commerce,  conducted  by  means  of  caravans,  embraced 
the  whole  civilized  world  and  included  all  its  products. 
She  became  a  great  military  and  naval  power,  her  armies 
overrunning  Asia,  and  her  fleets  sweeping  the  Indian 

*  "The  Martyrdom  of  Man,"  p.  18.  By  Winwood  Reade.  New 
York  :  Charles  P.  Somerby,  1876. 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  SOCIAL  PROBLEM.  251 

Ocean.  Her  victorious  campaigns  opened  new  markets 
to  her  commerce,  and  through  these  channels  wealth 
poured  into  the  empire.  In  the  track  of  the  wheels  of 
the  Egyptian  war-chariots  the  Egyptian  merchant  quick- 
ly followed.  At  the  point  of  the  arrows  of  her  archers 
she  offered  her  linen  goods  to  conquered  peoples,  as  Eng- 
land, at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  subsequently  offered 
her  cotton  goods  to  prostrate  India. 

In  Egypt  all  the  learning  of  the  time  was  concentrated. 
It  was  the  university  of  Greece.  Every  intellectual  Greek 
made  a  voyage  to  Egypt ;  it  was  regarded  as  a  part  of 
education,  as  a  pilgrimage  to  the  cradle-land  of  their  my- 
thology. The  possession  of  great  wealth  led  to  habits 
of  luxury.  The  house  of  the  Egyptian  gentleman  was  a 
palace  adorned  with  the  triumphs  of  art,  and  devoted  to 
pleasure.  Its  walls,  its  floors,  and  its  furniture  reflected 
the  skill,  not  to  say  genius,  of  slaves — for  all  the  manual 
labor  of  Egypt  was  performed  by  slaves.  At  the  end  of 
the  fashionable  dinner,  given  in  the  palace  by  its  rich 
master,  a  mummy,  richly  painted  and  gilded,  was  present- 
ed to  each  guest  in  turn  by  a  servant,  who  said,  "  Look 
on  this ;  drink  and  enjoy  thyself,  for  such  as  it  is  now 
so  thou  shalt  be  when  thou  art  dead."* 

One  day  when  the  priests  were  sacrificing  in  the  tem- 
ples, and  the  chief  officers  of  the  army  were  dining  with 
a  contractor  for  army  supplies,  a  band  of  mountaineers 
rushed  out  of  the  recesses  of  Persia  and  swept  like  a 
wind  across  the  plains.  They  were  dressed  in  leather; 
they  had  never  tasted  fruit  nor  wine ;  they  had  never 
seen  a  market ;  they  knew  not  how  to  buy  or  sell.  They 


*  "Herodotus,  'Euterpe,'"  II.,  p.  78.     New  York:  Harper 
Brothers,  1882. 


252  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

were  taught  three  tilings — to  ride  on  horseback,  to  hurl 
the  javelin,  and  to  speak  the  truth.*  All  Asia  was  cov- 
ered with  blood  and  flames.  The  allied  kingdoms  fell  at 
once,  and  India  and  Egypt  were  soon  afterwards  added 
to  the  Persian  empire. 

«  Egypt  typifies  all  the  early  nations.  In  its  rise,  prog- 
ress, and  fall,  the  course  of  the  others  may  be  traced. 
First  there  is  a  band  of  hardy  men  whose  prowess  renders 
them  irresistible.  They  are  inured  to  toil ;  they  practise 
all  the  manly  virtues;  they  are  trained  to  labor  with 
their  handss;  they  are  taught  to  speak  the  truth.  They 
lay  the  foundations  of  the  State  in  industry  and  pru- 
dence ;  their  children  develop  its  resources ;  their  chil- 
dren's children,  through  many  generations,  gradually  ac- 
cumulate wealth.  The  arts  flourish,  and  luxuries  are  mul- 
tiplied. There  are  many  great  estates,  and  those  who  in- 
herit them  cease  to  labor,  and,  ceasing  to  labor,  they  be- 
come a  charge  upon  the  public ;  for  the  value  of  an  estate 
created  one  hundred  years  ago,  or  one  year  ago,  can  be 
maintained  in  no  other  way  than  by  the  labor  of  to-day.f 
The  idlers  increase  in  number,  and  the  struggle  for 
existence,  of  the  workers,  becomes  more  intense.  Idle- 

*  "Herodotus,  '  Clio,' "  I.,  pp.  71, 136, 153.  New  York  :  Harper  & 
Brothers,  1882. 

f  "It  is  not  equitable  that  what  one  man  hath  done  for  the  public 
should  discharge  another  of  what  it  has  a  right  to  expect  from  him ; 
for  one,  standing  indebted  in  himself  to  society,  cannot  substitute 
anything  in  the  room  of  his  personal  service.  The  father  cannot 
transmit  to  his  son  the  right  of  being  useless  to  his  fellow-creatures. 
.  .  .  The  man  who  earns  not  his  subsistence,  but  eats  the  bread  of 
idleness,  is  no  better  than  a  thief.  ...  To  labor,  then,  is  the  indispen- 
sable duty  of  social  or  political  man.  Rich  or  poor,  strong  or  weak, 
every  idle  citizen  is  a  knave." — "Emilius  and  Sophia,"  Vol.  II., 
pp.  92,  93.  By  J.  J.  Rousseau.  London:  1767. 


EDUCATION   AND  THE  SOCIAL   PKOBLEM.  253 

ness  breeds  vice,  and  the  public  morals  are  debauched. 
We  see  this  class  at  the  feast  of  Belshazzar  and  at  the 
dinner  of  the  Egyptian  bon  vivant.  On  the  wall  of  every 
such  banqueting  room  there  is  an  ominous  handwriting, 
provided,  only,  that  there  is  a  Daniel  to  interpret  it.  It 
means  that  the  nation  that  degrades  labor,  tolerates  idle- 
ness, and  deifies  vice,  is  ripe  for  annihilation.  If,  now, 
there  is  on  the  frontier  of  the  effete  nation  a  virile  people, 
it  is  only  a  question  of  time  and  opportunity,  when  they 
will  make  slaves  of  the  revellers,  and  spoil  of  their  inher- 
ited estates.  The  worn-out,  exhausted  nation  ^disappears 
in  blood  and  flames.  The  rich  idler,  the  poor  sycophant, 
the  rulers  and  the  ruled,  the  slave  and  his  master,  the 
priest,  the  soldier,  the  merchant,  and  the  laborer,  all  go  to 
destruction  together. 

In  the  ancient  nations  there  was  always  force  and  ra- 
pacity above,  and  chains  and  slavery  below.  Education 
was  confined  to  a  small  class,  and  consisted  of  selfish 
maxims  for  the  government  of  the  many,  and  government 
was  only  another  name  for  the  appropriation  of  the  prod- 
ucts of  their  labor.  Selfishness  bred  injustice,  and  the 
practice  of  injustice  undermined  the  State.  Whether  the 
State  survived  or  fell  was  a  matter  of  indifference  to  the 
slave.  A  slave  he  remained  in  any  event  —  if  not  of 
the  Egyptian  then  of  the  Persian.  But  the  importance 
of  labor  is  shown  by  those  bloody  revolutions.  The  bat- 
tles of  antiquity  were  contests  for  the  possession  of  the 
labor  class.  Which  nationality  —  the  Egyptian  or  the 
Persian — should  drive  the  toilers  to  their  daily  tasks; 
which  should  reap  the  fruit  of  the  sweat  of  their  brows ; 
which  should  buy  and  sell  them  ;  which  scourge  them  to 
their  dungeons  ?  These  were  the  questions  which  agitat- 
ed the  minds  of  ancient  rulers.  They  were  the  questions 


254  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

which  agitated  the  mind  of  Xerxes  when  he  invaded 
Greece,  with  millions  of  followers,  to  encounter  defeat 
at  the  hands  of  a  few  thousand  men  of  a  superior  type. 

The  Greek  civilization  sprung  from  mythology  and 
ended  in  anarchy.  In  the  East  the  Greeks  were  called 
the  people  of  youth.  Their  religion  was  of  the  savage 
type.  Their  gods  were  immortalized  men ;  they  loved 
and  hated,  transgressed  and  suffered ;  they  resorted  to 
stratagems  to  compass  their  ends ;  they  were  a  kind  of 
exalted  but  unscrupulous  aristocracy. 

Greek  patriotism  was  narrow ;  each  city  was  politically 
independent,  and  the  citizen  of  one  city  was  an  alien  and 
a  stranger  in  the  territory  of  every  other.  The  Greeks 
were  superstitious.  If  the  omens  were  unfavorable  the 
general  refused  to  give  battle ;  the  plague  was  a  visible 
sign  of  the  wrath  of  the  gods ;  the  priests  sacrificed  per- 
petually ;  the  oracle  of  Apollo  outlived  Grecian  indepen- 
dence hundreds  of  years. 

Grecian  national  festivals  were  childish,  consisting  of 
wrestling,  boxing,  running,  jumping,  and  chariot-racing. 
But  the  victor  in  those  games  conferred  everlasting  glory 
upon  his  family  and  his  country,  and  was  rewarded  with 
distinguished  honors. 

Like  savages,  the  Greeks  were  treacherous.  The  des- 
tiny of  Greece  was  controlled  by  renegades.  There  was 
disloyalty  in  every  camp,  a  Greek  deserter  in  every  op- 
posing army,  and  a  traitor,  or  a  band  of  traitors,  in  every 
besieged  Greek  city.  They  were  cruel ;  of  their  captives 
they  butchered  the  men  and  enslaved  the  women,  and 
they  stripped  and  robbed  the  bodies  of  the  slain,  on  the 
battle-field.  Like  savages  they  assassinated  ambassadors, 
and  like  savages  surrendered  prisoners  to  their  personal 
enemies  to  be  massacred.  Their  sense  of  honor  was  dull. 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  SOCIAL  PROBLEM.  255 

Xenophon,  after  winning  imperishable  renown,  in  con- 
ducting the  famous  retreat  of  the  "  Ten  Thousand,"  led  a 
detachment  of  them  on  a  pillaging  expedition,  and  so 
amassed  a  fortune.  "My  patriotism,"  says  Alcibiades, 
"I  keep  not  at  a  time  when  I  am  being  wronged." 
"  For  there  was  neither  promise  that  could  be  depended 
on,  nor  oath  that  struck  them  with  fear,"  exclaims  Thu- 
cydides.* 

Yenality  was  the  predominating  trait  in  Greek  charac- 
ter, and  venality  unrestrained  is  savagery.  In  the  Greek 
Pantheon  the  highest  niche  was  reserved  for  the  God  of 
Gain.  The  early  Greeks  were  pirates ;  they  plundered 
one  another ;  they  sometimes  actually  sold  themselves 
into  slavery,  so  great  was  their  lust  of  gold.  The  richest 
cities  ruled  the  poor  cities.  Pericles  boasted  that  he 
could  not  be  bribed,  but  he  robbed  all  Greece  to  embel- 
lish Athens,  and  was  accused  of  peculation,  tried,  con- 
victed, and  fined.  The  Athenians  declared  that  the 
Spartans  were  taught  to  steal,  and  the  Spartans  retorted 
that  the  best  Athenians  were  invariably  thieves.  "When 
Persia  could  no  longer  fight  she  defended  her  territory 
against  Greek  invasion  with  gold  coins. 

The  Greek  orators  never  refused  a  bribe,  and  oratory 
ruled  Greece.  Greek  oratory  was  very  persuasive.  A 
discriminating  writer  declares  that,  with  their  fine  phrases 
and  rhetorical  expressions,  the  Greek  orators  swindled  his- 
tory, obtaining  a  vast  amount  of  admiration  under  false 
pretences.f 

For  these  defects  in  Greek  character,  and  for  the  re- 

*  "  The  History  of  the  Peloponnesian  War,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  210.  Lon- 
don :  George  Bell  &  Sons. 

f  "The  Martyrdom  of  Man,"  p.  88.  By  Winwood  Reade.  New 
York:  Charles  P.  Somerby,  1876. 


256  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

suiting  decay  of  Greek  civilization,  Greek  philosophy  and 
Greek  education  must  be  held  responsible.  Metaphysics 
and  rhetoric  ruined  Greece.  It  was  in  the  schools  of 
rhetoric  that  the  young  Greeks  received  their  training 
for  the  duties  of  public  life.  There  they  were  taught 
the  art  of  oratory;  there  they  learned  how  to  make  the 
worse  appear  the  better  reason.  There  they  were  taught, 
not  to  expound  the  truth,  but  to  indulge  in  the  arts  of 
sophistry.  It  was  in  those  schools  that  the  young  Greek 
was  trained  to  be  eloquent,  to  win  applause  in  the  courts 
of  law,  not  to  convince  the  judgments  of  judge,  or  juror ; 
for  judicial  decisions  were  notoriously  subjects  of  the 
most  shameful  traffic. 

The  element  of  rectitude  was  wholly  left  out  of  the 
Greek  system  of  education,  and  hence  wholly  wanting  in 
Greek  character.  The  Greeks  had  a  profound  distrust 
of  one  another.  They  were  dishonest ;  they  were  treach- 
erous ;  they  were  cruel ;  they  were  false ;  and  all  these 
vices  are  peculiar  to  a  state  of  savagery.  In  ethics  they 
never  emerged  from  the  savage  state,  and  hence  in  poli- 
tics their  failure  was  complete ;  for  the  prime  condition 
of  the  most  simple  form  of  civil  society  is  mutual  confi- 
dence. But  the  mutual  distrust  of  the  Greeks,  based  on 
want  of  integrity,  was  so  absolute  that  political  unity  was 
impossible,  and  the  failure  to  combine  the  several  cities 
under  one  government  led,  eventually,  to  the  destruction 
of  Greek  civilization. 

To  this  result  Greek  philosophy  also  contributed. 
Plato's  contempt  for  matter  was  so  profound  that  he  re- 
garded the  soul's  residence  in  the  body  as  an  evil.  He 
taught  that  the  philosopher  should  emancipate  himself 
from  the  illusions  of  sense,  devoting  his  life  to  reflection, 
and  surrendering  his  mind  "  to  communion  with  its  kin- 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  SOCIAL   PROBLEM.  257 

dred  eternal  essences."  Contempt  of  matter  led  logically 
to  contempt  of  the  physical  man,  and  hence  to  contempt 
of  things,  the  work  of  man's  hands.  Such  a  philosophy 
was  necessarily  "  in  the  air."  It  afforded  no  aid  to  the 
sciences;  for  science  is  the  product  of  generalizations 
from  matter.  It  scorned  art ;  for  the  arts  are  applications 
of  the  sciences  in  useful  things.  With  the  Greek  school- 
master rhetoric  was  the  chief  part  of  education  ;  with  the 
Greek  philosopher  dialectics  was  the  science  par  emi- 
nence. 

Thus  the  Greek  system  of  education  was  confined  to 
rhetoric  and  logic — the  art  of  speaking  with  propriety, 
elegance,  and  force,  and  the  power  of  deducing  legiti- 
mate conclusions  from  assumed  premises.  In  the  Greek 
schools  of  rhetoric  there  was  no  struggle  to  find  the 
truth  ;  in  the  schools  of  philosophy  there  was  no  respect 
for  the  evidence  of  the  senses.  The  Greek  orator  har- 
angued the  jury  eloquently  while  his  client  bargained 
with  the  court  for  the  price  of  justice !  The  Greek  phi- 
losopher confounded  his  audience  with  the  force  of  his 
unanswerable  logic,  and  appealed  to  his  inner  conscious- 
ness in  support  of  the  soundness  of  his  premises ! 

The  explanation  of  Greek  duplicity  is  found  in  Greek 
metaphysics.  To  scorn  things  is  to  disregard  facts,  and 
disregard  of  facts  is  contempt  of  the  truth.  Greek  edu- 
cation was  confined  to  a  consideration  of  the  subject  of 
the  nature  and  relations  of  abstract  ideas,  while  the  sub- 
ject of  the  nature  and  relations  of  things  was  wholly  neg- 
lected. Such  a  system  of  education  led  logically  to 
selfishness,  and  out  of  selfishness  grew  inordinate  am- 
bition and  greed ;  and  these  passions  led,  through  treach- 
ery and  dishonesty,  to  factional  contests,  which,  eventuat- 
ing in  bloodshed,  could  only  end  in  anarchy.  Distracted 


258  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

by  the  jealousies  and  rivalries  of  States  constantly  in  hos- 
tile conflict,  and  enfeebled  by  the  never-ending  strife  be- 
tween the  rich  and  the  poor,  Greece  fell  a  prey  to  the 
rapacity,  and  lust  of  power,  of  her  unscrupulous  Roman 
neighbor. 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  SOCIAL  PROBLEM.  359 


CHAPTER  XXII. 
EDUCATION  AND  THE  SOCIAL  PROBLEM— HISTORIC. 

ROME. 

Vigor  of  the  Early  Romans — their  Virtues  and  Vices ;  their  Rigorous 
Laws;  their  Defective  Education;  their  Contempt  of  Labor. — Slav- 
ery: its  Horrors  and  Brutalizing  Influence. — Education  Confined 
to  the  Arts  of  Politics  and  War ;  it  transformed  Courage  into 
Cruelty,  and  Fortitude  into  Stoicism. — Robbery  and  Bribery. — The 
Vices  of  Greece  and  Carthage  imported  into  Rome. — Slaves  con- 
struct all  the  great  Public  Works;  they  Revolt,  and  the  Legions 
Slaughter  them. — The  Gothic  Invasion. — Rome  Falls. — False  Phi- 
losophy and  Superficial  Education  promoted  Selfishness. — Deifica- 
tion of  Abstractions,  and  Scorn  of  Men  and  Things. — Universal 
Moral  Degradation. — Neglect  of  Honest  Men  and  Promotion  of 
Demagogues. — The  Decline  of  Morals  and  Growth  of  Literature. — 
Darwin's  Law  of  Reversion,  through  Selfishness,  to  Savagery. — 
Contest  between  the  Rich  and  the  Poor.  —  Logic,  Rhetoric,  and 
Ruin. 

IN  the  city  of  the  Seven  Hills  there  was  no  statue  to 
Pity,  as  at  Athens.  In  the  long  line  of  Roman  conquer- 
ors there  was  no  one  possessing  the  title  to  fame,  of 
which,  on  his  death -bed,  Pericles  boasted,  namely,  that 
"  no  Athenian  had  ever  worn  mourning  on  his  account." 

The  dominion  of  Rome  was  logical.  In  the  legend  of 
Romulus  and  Remus,  suckled  by  the  she-wolf,  there  is  a 
hint  of  the  rugged  vigor  which  characterized  the  Roman 
people,  and  distinguished  them  from  the  earlier  nationali- 
ties. In  all  the  civilizations  anterior  to  that  of  Rome  there 
was  an  element  of  pliability  or  softness  which  belongs  to 
the  youth  of  man.  But  from  the  day  on  which  Romulus, 


260  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

with  the  brazen  ploughshare,  drew  a  furrow  around  the 
Palatine,  both  the  sinews  and  the  souls  of  his  followers 
hardened  into  maturity.  The  rising  walls  of  the  city,  so 
the  legend  runs,  were  moistened  with  the  life-drops  of 
Remus,  whose  derisive  remark  and  act  cost  him  his  life, 
his  slayer  exclaiming,  haughtily,  "  So  perish  all  wrho  dare 
to  climb  these  ramparts."  The  rape  of  the  Sabines,  the 
conflicts  which  ensued  with  that  outraged  people,  their 
incorporation  with  the  conquerors,  their  subsequent  joint 
conquests,  and  the  shrewdness  displayed  in  the  conserva- 
tion of  the  fruits  of  victory — these  events  show  that  man 
had  attained  his  majority.  Under  the  shadow  of  the 
walls  of  the  Eternal  City  all  the  great  races  were  associ- 
ated and  mingled — Latins,  Trojans,  Greeks,  Sabines,  and 
Etruscans.  The  Roman  civilization  was  the  product  of 
all  that  had  gone  before,  as  it  was  destined  to  be  the  fa- 
ther of  all  that  should  follow  it.  The  Roman  had  no 
peer  either  in  courage  or  fortitude.  Aspiring  to  uni- 
versal dominion,  he  toughened  himself  to  achieve  it. 
Dooming  his  enemy  to  death  or  slavery,  he  was  not  less 
self -exacting,  his  own  life,  through  the  cup  of  poison, 
the  sword,  or  the  opened  vein,  becoming  the  forfeit 
equally  of  misfortune  and  shame.  The  tragic  fate  of 
Lucretia,  the  resulting  revolution,  the  banishment  of  the 
Tarquins,  and  the  abolition  of  the  kingly  government 
show  the  swiftness  of  Roman  retribution  and  the  terrible 
force  of  Roman  resolution.  Roman  persistence  in  the 
path  of  conquest  for  many  centuries  is  typified  by  Cato  in 
his  invocation  of  destruction  upon  Carthage.  The  mas- 
culine character  of  the  Roman  vices  finds  illustration  in 
the  struggle  of  Appius,  the  Decemvir,  to  possess  the  per- 
son of  Virginia  by  wresting  the  law  from  its  true  pur- 
pose, the  conservation  of  justice,  and  converting  it  into  a 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  SOCIAL  PROBLEM.  261 

• 

shield  for  lust ;  and  the  vigor  of  Roman  virtue  is  exem- 
plified in  the  act  of  Yirginius  plunging  the  knife  into  the 
heart  of  his  beloved  daughter  to  save  her  honor.  The 
rigorous  laws  of  Rome  testify  to  the  stamina  of  her  peo- 
ple. The  father  to  whom  a  deformed  son  was  born  must 
cause  the  child  to  be  put  to  death,  and  any  citizen  might 
kill  the  man  who  betrayed  the  design  of  becoming  king. 
A  scientific  system  of  education  would  have  conserved 
and  developed  the  noble  and  eliminated  the  ignoble  traits 
of  Roman  character.  But  neither  Roman  education,  phi- 
losophy, nor  ethics  inculcated  either  respect  for  labor  or 
reverence  for  human  rights ;  and  hence  the  laborer  was 
reduced  to  slavery,  and  the  slave  made  the  victim  of  ev- 
ery known  atrocity.  Slavery  became  the  corner-stone  of 
the  Roman  State,  and  slavery  and  labor  were  synonymous 
terms.  The  Roman  supply  of  laborers  was  maintained 
by  depopulating  conquered  countries.  In  the  train  of 
the  legions,  returning  to  Rome  in  triumph,  there  were 
not  only  statues,  paintings,  and  other  works  of  art,  but 
thousands  of  men,  women,  and  children  destined  to  slav- 
ery. And  the  laws  in  regard  to  slaves  were  terrible,  as 
laws  touching  slavery  must  always  be  —  for  a  state  of 
slavery  is  a  state  of  war.  It  was  a  law  of  Rome  that  if 
a  slave  murdered  his  master  the  whole  family  of  slaves 
should  be  put  to  death ;  and  Tacitus  relates  an  instance 
of  the  execution  of  four  hundred  slaves  for  the  murder 
of  a  citizen,  their  master.  In  the  course  of  the  servile 
rebellion  in  Sicily  a  million  slaves  were  killed;  and  it 
should  be  borne  in  mind  that  they  were  valuable  labor- 
ers—  many  of  them  skilled  artisans.  Vast  numbers  of 
them  were  exposed  to  wild  beasts  in  the  arena,  for  the 
popular  amusement.  The  rebellion  of  the  gladiators  was 
put  down  only  by  a  resort  to  awful  atrocities,  among 


262  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

• 
which  was  the  crucifixion  of  prisoners.     The  revolt  of 

the  allies  was  quelled  at  the  cost  of  half  a  million  lives. 
But  slaves  were  plenty,  for  Rome  had  her  bloody  hand 
at  the  throat  of  all  mankind,  and  her  hoarse  cry  was, 
"  Your  life  or  your  liberty !" 

Every  Roman  freeman  was  a  soldier,  and  the  cultiva- 
tion of  the  land,  manufactures,  and  all  the  pursuits  of  in- 
dustry, were  carried  on  by  slaves.  Slave  labor  was  cheap- 
er than  the  labor  of  animals;  cattle  were  taken  from 
the  plough  and  slaughtered  for  beef  that  slaves — men — 
might  take  their  places.  Labor  fell  to  the  lowest  degree 
of  contempt,  and  the  laborer  was  a  thing  to  be  spurned 
— for  the  free  citizen  to  labor  with  his  hands  was  more 
disgraceful  than  to  die  of  starvation.  Hence  there  was  a 
class  of  citizen  paupers  to  whom  largesses  of  corn  were 
doled  out  by  the  demagogues  of  the  Senate  and  the  army. 
Ultimately  these  citizen-paupers  became  so  vile  and  filthy 
that  they  engendered  leprosy  and  other  loathsome  dis- 
eases, as  they  dragged  their  palsied  limbs  through  the 
streets  of  the  city,  crying,  "  Bread  and  circuses !  bread 
and  circuses !" 

Roman  education  was  confined  almost  exclusively  to 
the  training  of  the  sons  of  rich  citizens  in  the  arts  of 
politics  and  war;  and  in  a  State  where  labor  was  de- 
spised, and  whose  corner-stone  was  slavery,  and  whose 
shibboleth  was  conquest,  the  baseness  of  these  arts  may 
be  imagined  but  hardly  described.  It  promoted  selfish- 
ness, and  in  the  course  of  centuries  selfishness  transform- 
ed Roman  courage  into  cruelty,  and  Roman  fortitude 
into  brutal  stoicism.  The  Roman  sense  of  justice  was 
swallowed  up  in  Roman  lust  of  power.  Rome  became 
the  great  robber  nation  of  the  world.  She  was  on  the 
land  what  Greece  had  once  been  on  the  sea — a  pirate. 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  SOCIAL  PROBLEM.  263 

She  made  the  streets  of  the  cities  she  conquered  run 
with  blood.  Thousands  of  captives  she  doomed  to  death ; 
other  thousands  graced  the  triumphs  of  her  generals,  and 
the  spoil  saved  from  the  fury  of  the  flames,  and  the  more 
ungovernable  fury  of  the  licentious  soldiery,  was  carried 
home  to  the  Eternal  City,  there  to  fall  into  the  hands  of 
the  most  cunning  among  the  demagogues,  for  use  in  the 
bribery  of  courts,  senators,  and  the  populace. 

Tacitus  deplored  the  decline  of  public  virtue.  He  de- 
clared, mournfully,  that  "Nothing  was  sacred,  nothing 
safe  from  the  hand  of  rapacity."  His  environment  blind- 
ed him  to  the  true  cause  of  the  depravity  he  so  elo- 
quently deplored — selfishness.  Had  he  been  familiar  with 
the  inductive  method  he  would  have  found  in  a  defective 
system  of  education  the  cause  of  Roman  venality  and  cor- 
ruption. He  might  thus  have  realized  the  weakness  of  a 
community  of  men  who  wanted  the  necessary  force  and 
virtue  to  depose  a  Tiberius  and  elevate  to  his  place  a 
Germanicus ;  or  to  dethrone  a  Domitian  and  crown  in 
his  stead  an  Agricola. 

Education  in  Rome  deified  selfishness,  and  hence  real- 
ized its  last  analysis — total  depravity.  Of  course  noth- 
ing was  sacred  in  a  community  where  men  were  ruth- 
lessly trampled  underfoot !  Of  course  nothing  was  "safe 
from  the  hand  of  rapacity"  where  the  laborer  was  de- 
graded to  a  place  in  the  social  scale  below  the  leprous 
pauper  whose  filthy  person  provoked  disgust,  and  whose 
poisonous  breath,  as  he  cried  for  bread,  spread  abroad 
disease  and  death ! 

It  was  inevitable  that  the  nation  that  grew  rich  through 
plunder  should  grow  poor  in  public  and  private  virtue. 
And  such  was  the  fact.  The  eagles  that  protected  rob- 
bers abroad,  spread  their  sheltering  wings  over  defaulters, 


264  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

bribers,  and  thieves  at  home.  There  had  been  a  time  in 
Rome  when  bribery  was  punishable  with  death,  but  now 
candidates  for  office  sat  at  tables  in  the  streets  near  the 
polling-places  and  openly  paid  the  people  for  their  votes. 
The  change  in  the  habits  of  the  people  was  as  pronounced 
as  the  change  in  the  laws.  The  early  triumphs  of  the 
Romans  were  industrial  —  flocks  and  herds ;  their  tro- 
phies, obtained  in  single  combat,  consisted  of  spears  and 
helmets.  When  Cincinnatus  was  sent  for  to  assume 
the  dictatorship  he  was  found  in  his  field  following  the 
plough.  Valerius,  four  times  consul,  and  by  Livy  char- 
acterized as  the  first  man  of  his  time,  died  so  poor  that 
he  had  to  be  buried  at  the  public  charge.  But  with  the 
fall  of  Greece  and  Carthage,  and  the  reduction  of  Asia, 
there  was  a  great  social  change  at  Rome.  The  Roman 
legions  not  only  carried  home  the  wealth  of  the  coun- 
tries they  conquered  but  the  vices  of  the  peoples  they 
subdued.  An  ancient  writer  summarizes  the  situation 
in  the  following  graphic  sentence :  "  The  only  fashiona- 
ble principles  were  to  acquire  wealth  by  every  means  of 
avarice  and  injustice,  and  to  dissipate  it  by  every  method 
of  luxury  and  profusion." 

The  end  is  not  far  off.  The  story  of  Persia,  of  Egypt, 
and  of  Greece  is  the  story  equally  of  Rome.  Avarice 
and  injustice,  luxury  and  profusion  do  their  sure  work. 
The  Roman  civilization  is  more  than  a  thousand  years 
old.  Asiatic  wealth,  the  luxury  and  false  philosophy  of 
Greece,  and  a  vicious  system  of  education,  promoting 
selfishness,  have  united  to  sap  its  foundations.  Society 
is  divided  into  three  classes — an  aristocracy  based  solely 
upon  wealth,  cruel  and  profligate,  a  mob  of  free  citizens, 
otherwise  paupers,  who  live  by  beggary  and  the  sale  of 
their  votes,  and  laborers  who  are  slaves. 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  SOCIAL  PKOBLEM.  365 

On  the  occasion  of  the  presentation  of  spectacles, 
among  a  variety  of  presents  slaves  (laborers)  are  thrown 
into  the  arena  to  be  scrambled  for  by  the  free  citizens ! 
But  men  are  cheap.  In  Asia  they  sell  for  sixpence 
apiece,  and  Rome  has  only  to  send  an  army  there  to  get 
them  for  nothing.  To  this  class,  to  these  slaves,  however, 
the  Roman  people  are  indebted  for  all  the  arts  which 
make  life  agreeable.  They  construct  all  the  great  public 
works.  They  build  the  splendid  roads  over  which  the 
Roman  legions  follow  their  generals  in  triumph  home  to 
Rome.  They  make  the  aqueducts,  dig  the  canals,  and 
construct  the  buildings,  public  and  private,  whose  re- 
mains still  attest  their  magnificence  —  the  Forum,  the 
amphitheatres,  and  the  golden  house  of  the  Csesars. 
They  build  the  villas  overlooking  the  Bay  of  Naples,  in 
which  the  nobles  live  in  riot  and  wantonness ;  they  cook 
the  dinners  given  in  those  villas ;  they  make  the  clothes 
the  nobles  wear,  and  the  jewels  that  adorn  their  persons. 
They  cultivate  the  fields,  follow  the  plough,  train  and 
trim  the  vine,  and  gather  in  the  harvest.  They  raise  the 
corn  that  is  distributed  by  the  nobles  among  the  soldiery, 
and  given  as  a  bribe  to  the  diseased  and  debauched  free 
citizens  for  their  votes.  They  feel  deeply  the  injustice 
of  their  lot,  and,  like  men,  strike  for  liberty.  But  the 
Roman  legions  are  set  on  them  like  blood-hounds,  and 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  them  are  slaughtered  and  made 
food  for  birds  of  prey,  and  other  thousands  are  thrown 
into  the  arena  to  be  torn  by  wild  beasts,  and  still  others 
are  bestowed  as  gifts  upon  the  populace  at  the  games. 

The  contest  between  the  rich  and  the  poor  is  at  an 
end ;  the  rich  are  millionaires,  the  poor  are  beggars.  It 
is  the  story  of  Dives  and  Lazarus  over  again.  The  rich 
are  clothed  in  purple  and  fine  linen,  and  fare  sumptuous- 


266  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

ly  every  day ;  the  poor  are  full  of  sores,  and  live  upon 
the  crumbs  that  fall  from  the  tables  of  the  rich.  Rome 
topples  to  her  fall.  The  Gothic  invader  is  at  her  gates, 
and  there  is  no  army  to  defend  them.  The  barbarian 
demands  a  ransom.  To  obtain  it  the  statues  are  despoiled 
of  their  ornaments  and  precious  stones,  and  the  gods  of 
gold  and  silver  are  melted  in  the  fire.  The  ransom  is 
given,  and  Alaric  retires.  He  returns,  and  this  time  to 
pillage.  The  city  is  sacked;  rich  and  poor,  bond  and 
free,  are  whelmed  in  one  common  ruin.  At  last  the 
diabolic  wish  of  the  infamous  Caligula  is  realized.  The 
Roman  people  have  but  one  neck,  and  the  Goth  puts  his 
foot  upon  it.  Rome  falls,  the  victim  of  her  own  crimes, 
strangled  by  her  own  gluttony.  Thus  ends  the  first 
period  of  the  world's  manhood — ends  in  exhaustion,  and 
a  syncope  which  is  destined  to  last  a  thousand  years. 

Long  before  the  fall  of  the  republic  Rome  had  become 
the  seat  of  all  the  world's  learning.  In  robbing  con- 
quered countries  she  not  only  took  their  gold  and  silver, 
a  share  of  their  people  for  slaves,  and  their  works  of  art, 
but  their  libraries,  their  philosophy,  and  their  literature. 
But  neither  the  Greek  nor  the  Roman  philosophy  con- 
tributed in  the  least  to  a  solution  of  the  pressing  social 
problems  of  the  time.  The  wise  men  of  Rome  were 
powerless  to  help  either  themselves  or  their  fellow-men, 
because  their  philosophy  was  false.  It  was  purely  spec- 
ulative ;  it  had  no  body  of  facts  to  rest  upon. 

The  Roman  educators  and  philosophers  were  almost  as 
ignorant  of  physiology  as  Plato  was  hundreds  of  years 
before,  hence  they  were  unable  to  study  the  mind  in  the 
sole  way  in  which  it  is  intelligently  approachable,  name- 
ly, through  its  bodily  manifestations.  In  studying  the 
mind  as  an  independent  entity  there  could  be  no  general 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  SOCIAL  PROBLEM.  267 

rules  of  investigation.  The  metaphysical  philosopher  did 
not  study  the  mind  of  man ;  he  explored  his  own  mind 
merely — consulted  his  own  inner  consciousness.  Hence 
there  were,  in  Rome,  as  many  systems  of  philosophy, 
more  or  less  clearly  defined  and  distinct,  as  there  were 
philosophers.  But  they  were  merely  metaphysical  spec- 
ulations, dreams,  dependent  upon  purely  subjective  proc- 
esses ;  and  those  processes  were  in  turn  dependent  upon 
the  ever-changing  states  of  mind  of  each  philosopher. 

It  is  obvious  that  these  systems  of  philosophy  could 
exert  no  influence  upon  the  community  at  large,  for  the 
community  formed  no  part  of  the  subject  matter  of  their 
speculations.  But  they  did  exert  an  influence,  and  a 
very  pernicious  one,  upon  the  philosophers  themselves, 
and  indeed  upon  all  the  cultured  men  of  Rome ;  for  they 
were  thereby  made  thoroughly  selfish,  and  so  rendered  in- 
capable of  forming  a  just  judgment  of  public  affairs.  In 
considering  the  mind  apart  from  the  body,  the  body  nat- 
urally fell  into  utter  contempt.  This  was  the  great  crime 
of  speculative  philosophy ;  for  in  engendering  a  feeling 
of  contempt  for  the  human  body  it  furnished  an  excuse 
for  slavery.  And  this  contempt  logically  included  man- 
ual labor,  for  the  only  manual  laborer  was  a  slave ;  and 
it  also  extended  to  the  useful  arts,  for  all  those  arts  were 
the  work  of  slaves.  Hence  the  laborer,  being  a  slave, 
was  placed  lower  in  the  social  scale  than  the  pauper  who 
sold  his  vote  for  a  glass  of  wine.  And  thus  it  came 
about  that  a  factitious  right — the  right  of  suffrage — was 
more  highly  esteemed  by  the  public  than  the  cardinal 
virtue  of  industry,  upon  which  alone  the  perpetuity  of 
the  social  compact  depends. 

And,  again,  the  wretched  state  of  public  morals  may  be 
inferred  from  the  fact  that  the  right  of  suffrage,  through 

12 


268  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

which  the  idle,  leprous  pauper  was  elevated  above  the 
industrious  laborer  and  above  the  useful  arts,  was  notori- 
ously the  subject  of  open  traffic  in  the  streets  of  Rome 
on  every  election  day.  Thus  Roman  philosophy  landed 
the  Roman  people  in  the  last  ditch,  for  it  led  to  the  dei- 
fication of  abstract  ideas  and  to  scorn  of  things.  That 
this  utter  perversion  of  the  truth  and  wreck  of  justice 
was  the  cause  of  the  decline  of  the  Roman  Empire  there 
is  no  doubt. 

It  is  equally  plain  that  the  noted  men  of  Rome  were 
utterly  ignorant  of  the  cause  of  the  disorders  which  af- 
flicted the  body  politic.  There  is  no  evidence,  either  in 
their  lives  or  their  works,  that  they  brought  to  the  con- 
sideration of  the  great  social  problems  of  the  time  any 
practical  philosophy  whatever.  Suetonius,  with  a  graphic 
pen,  portrays  the  cruelties  of  the  Caesars,  but  hints  at 
no  cause  therefor  inherent  in  the  social  system.  Cicero 
forecasts  the  doom  of  the  republic,  but  has  no  remedy 
to  propose  except  that  of  the  elevation  of  Pompey  rather 
than  Caesar.  Livy  and  Tacitus  deplore  the  decay  of 
public  and  private  virtue,  but  are  silent  on  the  subject 
of  the  infamy  of  slavery  and  on  the  shame  of  degrading 
labor.  The  moral  sentiments  of  Seneca  and  Aurelius 
are  of  the  most  elevated  character,  but  the  fact  that  they 
ignore  slavery,  the  slave,  the  laborer,  and  the  useful  arts, 
shows  either  that  they  never  thought  upon  those  funda- 
mental social  questions,  or  that  their  thoughts  ran  in  the 
popular  channel ;  in  a  word,  that  their  philosophy  was 
so  shallow  as  to  render  them  callous  to  the  great  crimes 
upon  which  the  Roman  State  rested. 

That  the  subjective  philosophy  and  the  defective  edu- 
cational system  of  the  Romans  rendered  them  selfish, 
and  hence  corrupt,  there  is  abundant  evidence.  Cicero 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  SOCIAL  PROBLEM.  269 

professed  the  most  lofty  patriotism,  but  lie  was  without 
moral  courage.  It  was  he  who  congratulated  the  public 
men  of  Rome,  after  the  usurpation  of  Caesar,  upon  the 
privilege  of  remaining  "totally  silent!"  He  regarded 
Pompey  as  "  the  greatest  man  the  world  had  ever  pro- 
duced," but  deserted  him  in  his  extremity,  which  was 
equally  the  extremity  of  his  country.  He  denounced 
Csesar  as  the  cause  of  the  culminating  misfortunes  of 
Rome,  but  went  down  upon  his  knees  to  him,  and  rose 
to  his  feet  only  to  exhaust  all  the  resources  of  his  match- 
less eloquence  in  fulsome  adulation  of  the  destroyer  of 
the  Republic. 

Seneca's  moral  precepts  are  sublime,  but  his  political 
maxims  are  atrocious.  "Witness  this  pretence  of  an  all- 
embracing  love  for  man — "  Whenever  thou  seest  a  fel- 
low-creature in  distress  know  that  thou  seest  a  human 
being."  Contrast  with  this  exalted  sentiment  of  the 
great  stoic  his  political  maxim  —  "  Terror  is  the  safe- 
guard of  a  kingdom" — and  reflect  that  he  lived  under 
the  reigns  of  Claudius  and  Nero.  The  millions  of  slaves 
in  the  Roman  dominions  were  "human  beings,"  but 
Seneca  had  no  practical  regard  for  them  as  "fellow- 
creatures  in  distress."  His  beautiful  humanitarian  sen- 
timent was  a  barren  ideality — it  bore  no  fruit ;  but,his 
brutal  political  maxim  caused  him  to  thrive.  Under  the 
favor  of  Claudius  Seneca  amassed  a  vast  fortune.  His 
palace  in  the  city  was  sumptuously  furnished,  his  coun- 
try-seats were  splendidly  appointed,  and  he  possessed 
abundance  of  ready  money.  "  There  can  be  no  happiness 
without  virtue,"  exclaims  this  prosperous  Roman  citizen. 
But  while  Seneca  pens  this  lofty  sentiment  he  is  accused 
of  avarice,  usury,  and  extortion,  charged  with  complicity  in 
thePiso  conspiracy,  and  banished  for  the  crime  of  adultery. 


270  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

The  debasing  influence  of  the  Greek  philosophy,  upon 
the  Roman  people,  is  shown  by  contrasting  the  charac- 
ters of  the  distinguished  men  who  were  honored  by  the 
public  at  widely  separated  periods  of  time.  Thus,  dur- 
ing the  period  400-350  B.C.,  Camillus,  noted  above  all 
his  contemporaries  for  the  purity  of  his  public  life,  was 
uninterruptedly  honored  with  the  highest  offices  in  the 
State,  and  loved  and  respected  by  all  classes  of  the  com- 
munity. But  three  hundred  years  later  Caesar,  who  in- 
volved the  country  in  civil  war  to  compass  his  ambition, 
and  in  which  struggle  liberty  perished  —  he  was  pre- 
ferred, in  all  the  political  struggles  preliminary  to  his  as- 
sumption of  supreme  power,  to  Cato,  whose  patriotism 
was  unquestioned,  and  whose  rigid  virtue  was  prover- 
bial throughout  the  Roman  Empire.  So  also  of  a  still 
later  period,  Agricola  and  Germanicus  were  renowned  for 
the  possession  of  the  highest  qualities  of  true  manhood, 
joined  to  the  practice  in  public  life  of  the  most  austere 
and  self-sacrificing  virtue.  Both  served  the  State  with 
courage,  ability,  and  zeal ;  but  the  one,  after  a  brilliant 
career  in  the  West,  was  forced  into  retirement,  and  the 
other,  after  splendid  services  in  the  East,  was  exiled  and 
poisoned. 

Previous  to  the  introduction  of  the  Greek  philoso- 
phy, and  the  Greek  education  and  social  habits,  the  Ro- 
man people  were  wTorthy  of  their  noblest  representative 
— Camillus.  At  that  early  period  of  their  history  they 
rewarded  virtue  and  punished  vice.  But  during  the  Em- 
pire, after  the  invasion  of  Greek  manners,  they  were 
unworthy  of  their  best  representatives — Cato,  Germani- 
cus, and  Agricola.  To  those  great  and  good  men  they 
preferred  Caesar,  Caligula,  and  ISTero :  they  rewarded  vice 
and  punished  virtue.  There  is  in  this  circumstance  un- 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  SOCIAL  PROBLEM.  271 

questionable  evidence  of  a  great  declension  in  character. 
But  the  remarkable  fact  in  regard  to  this  period  of  Ro- 
man  history  is  that  the  declension  in  character  was  ac- 
companied by  a  species  of  great  mental  growth  or  power. 

Daring  this  period  a  literature  was  created  which  has 
ever  since  been  famous,  and  which  still  exerts  a  consid- 
erable influence  upon  man.  Caesar's  Commentaries,  the 
Orations  of  Cicero,  the  Annals  of  Tacitus,  Livy's  History, 
the  Odes  and  Satires  of  Horace,  the  Meditations  of  Au- 
relius,  and  the  Morals  of  Seneca  are  in  all  the  world's 
libraries,  and,  in  the  universities,  are  placed  in  the  hands 
of  the  most  favored  youth  of  all  the  civilized  countries 
of  the  world,  as  models  of  style  and  exponents  of  a  civ- 
ilization whence  all  modern  civilizations  sprung.  But 
this  literature  possessed  no  saving  quality,  because  in  so 
far  as  it  was  elevated  in  morals  it  did  not  represent  the 
Roman  people,  not  even  the  authors  themselves  general- 
ly, as  has  been  shown.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  during  the 
period  of  the  creation  of  the  great  literature  of  Rome, 
Darwin's  law  of  "reversion"  was  in  active  operation. 
There  was  a  "  black  sheep  "  in  every  noble  Roman  fami- 
ly. Bad  men  appeared,  not  now  and  then,  at  long  inter- 
vals, as  in  all  civilizations,  but  every  day  and  everywhere ; 
and  these  men  were  political  and  social  leaders.  They 
moulded  the  policy  of  the  State  and  set  the  fashion  in 
society.  Under  their  direction  the  Roman  people  retro- 
graded towards  a  state  of  savagery,  and  savagery  is  but 
another  name  for  selfishness.  Selfishness  in  its  worst 
estate  is  the  essence  of  human  depravity,  and  to  that  con- 
dition the  Roman  people  fell,  at  the  time  when  their  mor- 
alists were  inditing  those  sublime  sentiments  which  still 
challenge  the  admiration  of  all  great  and  good  men. 

That  the  Roman  people  were  as  dead  to  the  influence 


272  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

of  higli  moral  sentiments  as  the  Britons  were  when  first 
encountered  by  Caesar,  shows  that  they  had  degener- 
ated to  a  similar  condition  of  savagery,  or  to  a  condi- 
tion of  absolute  selfishness,  which  is  its  moral  equivalent. 
Given  a  savage  state,  two  savages  and  one  dinner ;  the 
savages  will  fight  to  the  death  for  the  dinner.  Given  a 
state  of  civilization  absolutely  selfish,  two  contestants  and 
one  prize ;  each  contestant  will  exhaust  all  the  resources 
of  artifice,  duplicity,  and  falsehood  to  secure  the  prize. 
To  this  deplorable  condition  the  Roman  people  were  re- 
duced by  subjective  educational  processes.  Selfishness 
causes  the  individual  to  seek  his  own  interest  in  total  dis- 
regard of  the  interest  of  others.  Hence  it  tends  directly 
to  the  disintegration  of  society,  since  the  essence  of  the 
civil  compact  is  the  pledge  of  each  member  of  the  com- 
munity that  he  will  do  no  injury  to  his  fellows.  Selfish- 
ness violates  this  pledge ;  for  to  gain  its  end  it  ruthlessly 
crushes  whatever  appears  in  its  path. 

In  Rome  selfishness  did  its  complete  work.  It  trans- 
formed the  government  from  a  pure  democracy  into  an 
oligarchy  composed  of  wealthy  citizens,  who  called  them- 
selves nobles.  By  this  class  wealth  was  made  the  sole 
standard  of  social  and  political  distinction,  and  in  its 
presence,  and  through  its  influence,  the  old  strife  between 
the  patricians  and  the  plebeians  gave  way  to  a  state  of 
hostility  between  the  rich  and  the  poor — always  the  last 
analysis  of  social  disorder.  The  contest  was  distinguished 
by  assassinations,  embezzlements  of  the  public  money, 
the  quarrels  of  rival  demagogues,  and  civil  wars,  and  it 
culminated  in  Caesar  and  the  empire. 

The  nobles,  or  aristocrats,  who  wrought  the  work  of 
transformation,  were  refined  and  elegant  in  their  man- 
ners, and  accomplished  in  the  tricks  of  finance,  the  tech- 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  SOCIAL  PROBLEM.  273 

nicalities  of  the  law,  and  the  arts  of  oratory.  They  were 
the  product  of  the  Roman  schools  of  rhetoric  and  logic, 
whose  subjective  methods  obscured  the  truth,  promoted 
vanity,  and  deified  selfishness.  All  the  guards  of  honor 
and  rectitude  having  been  swept  away  by  Caesar,  a  savage 
contest  for  supremacy  ensued  among  the  aristocrats.  The 
prize  for  which  they  contended  consisted  of  the  spoil  of 
the  Roman  legions  and  the  product  of  the  labor  of  the 
Roman  slaves.  This  was  the  Roman  patrimony  —  the 
price  of  blood  and  of  the  sweat  of  enforced  toil.  For 
this  prize  the  Roman  aristocrats  struggled  like  savages 
fighting  for  the  one  dinner. 

It  is  the  old  struggle,  the  struggle  witnessed  by  each, 
in  turn,  of  the  nations  of  antiquity — the  struggle  in  which 
selfishness  vanquishes  itself.  But  this  is  a  struggle  of 
giants,  is  on  a  grander  scale,  and  is  more  conspicuous, 
for  the  historian,  pen  in  hand,  records  its  bloody  scenes. 
It  is  the  last  act  in  a  great  drama,  a  drama  that  has  lasted 
a  thousand  years.  It  is  the  conclusion  of  the  long  strug- 
gle of  a  few  large- brained,  unscrupulous  individuals,  to 
grasp  the  fruits  of  the  toil  of  all  men.  The  conspirators 
are  about  to  fail,  as  such  conspiracies  have  always  failed 
and  must  always  fail,  and  like  Samson  in  his  blind  fury 
they  will  pull  down  upon  their  own  devoted  heads  the 
pillars  of  the  temple.  The  struggle  culminates  in  a  hand- 
to-hand  conflict  for  the  mastery  between  the  baffled  chiefs 
of  the  conspiracy  to  enslave  mankind — the  supreme  ef- 
fort of  selfishness — and  it  involves  the  authors  and  their 
victims  in  one  common  disaster.  Once  more  it  is  proven 
that  a  false  system  of  education,  a  system  which  exalts 
abstract  ideas  and  degrades  things,  promotes  selfishness ; 
that  selfishness  is  the  equivalent  of  savagery,  and  that 
savagery,  however  refined,  wrecks  society. 


274  MANUAL  TRAINING. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 
EDUCATION  AND  THE  SOCIAL  PROBLEM-HISTORIC. 

THE   MIDDLE   AGES, 

-* 

The  Trinity  upon  which  Civilization  Rests :  Justice,  the  Arts,  and 
Labor;  and  these  Depend  upon  Scientific  Education. — Reason  of 
the  Failure  of  Theodoric  and  Charlemagne  to  Reconstruct  the 
Pagan  Civilization. — Contempt  of  Man. — Serfdom. — The  Vices  of 
the  Time :  False  Philosophy,  an  Odious  Social  Caste,  and  Igno 
ranee. — The  Splendid  Career  of  the  Moors  in  Spain,  in  Contrast.- 
Effect  upon  Spain  of  the  Expulsion  of  the  Moors. — The  Repressive 
Force  of  Authority  and  the  Atrocious  Philosophy  of  Contempt  of 
Man. — The  Rule  of  Italy — a  Menace  and  a  Sneer. — The  work  of 
Regeneration. — The  Crusades. — The  Destruction  of  Feudalism. — 
The  Invention  of  Printing. — The  Discovery  of  America. — Investi- 
gation.— Discoveries  in  Science  and  Art. 

CIVILIZATION  languishes  in  an  atmosphere  of  injustice, 
and  if  the  injustice  is  gross,  as  slavery,  for  example,  and 
long  continued,  the  State  perishes  in  the  social  convul- 
sion which  ensues.  Thus  perished  the  nations  of  an- 
tiquity. Civilization  depends  upon  the  useful  arts;  in 
them  it  had  its  origin,  and  with  them  it  advances.  The 
savage,  in  his  most  primitive  state,  is  ignorant  of  all  the 
arts ;  the  most  highly  civilized  man  is  familiar  with,  and 
under  obligations  to,  all  of  them.  The  useful  arts  de- 
pend upon  labor.  If  the  laborer  is  degraded,  the  use- 
ful arts  decline,  as  he  sinks,  in  the  social  scale ;  if  he  is 
honored,  they  advance,  as  he  rises.  The  trinity  upon 
which  civilization  rests  is,  therefore,  justice,  the  useful 
arts,  and  labor ;  and  this  trinity  of  saving  forces  depends 
in  turn  upon  the  scientific  education  of  man.  Rome 


EDUCATION  AND  THE   SOCIAL   PROBLEM.  275 

held  all  these  things  in  contempt,  and  Kome  perished. 
Anarchy  ensued,  and,  from  a  state  of  governmental  cha- 
os, the  feudal  system  was  evolved.  A  brief  analysis 
of  the  history  of  the  mediaeval  period  will  show  that 
education  was  unscientific,  and  consequently  that  jus- 
tice was  scorned,  the  useful  arts  neglected,  and  labor 
despised. 

Theodoric  strove  to  stem  the  tide  of  demoralization 
which  succeeded  the  overthrow  of  the  pagans  in  Italy. 
He  was  a  semi-barbarian,  but  a  man  of  genius,  and  ten 
years  of  his  youth,  spent  at  Constantinople,  taught  him 
the  value  of  civilization.  Under  his  reign  there  was 
a  restoration  of  the  common  industries,  work  on  inter- 
nal improvements  was  resumed,  and  there  was  a  reviv- 
al of  polite  literature  and  the  fine  arts.  But  there  was 
no  general  prosperity  because  there  was  no  general  sys- 
tem of  education.  Polite  literature  must  rest  upon  a 
basis  of  general  culture,  or  it  is  valueless  to  the  country 
in  which  it  flourishes.  So  of  the  fine  arts ;  they  can  ex- 
ist legitimately  only  as  the  natural  outgrowth  and  em- 
bellishment of  the  useful  arts.*  In  the  due  order  of  de- 
velopment the  useful  precede  the  fine  arts.  Theodoric 
began  the  reconstruction  of  the  exhausted  Roman  civili- 
zation from  the  top,  and  his  work  was  a  complete  failure, 

*  "But  it  is  one  thing  to  admit  that  aesthetic  culture  is  in  a  high 
degree  conducive  to  human  happiness,  and  another  thing  to  admit 
that  it  is  a  fundamental  requisite  to  human  happiness.  However 
important  it  may  be,  it  must  yield  precedence  to  those  kinds  of  cult- 
ure which  bear  more  directly  upon  the  duties  of  life.  As  before 
hinted,  literature  and  the  fine  arts  are  made  possible  by  those  activi- 
ties which  make  individual  and  social  life  possible;  and  manifestly 
that  which  is  made  possible  must  be  postponed  to  that  which  makes 
it  possible." — "Education,"  p.  72.  By  Herbert  Spencer.  New  York: 
D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  1883. 

12* 


276  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

of  course,  because  it  had  no  foundation.  It  was  like  the 
Greek  and  Roman  philosophy,  it  had  no  basis  of  things 
to  rest  upon.  Hence  the  order  evoked  from  chaos  by 
the  great  Ostrogoth  to  chaos  soon  returned. 

Charlemagne  also  attempted  to  reconstruct  a  worn-out 
civilization  through  the  revival  of  polite  literature  and 
the  fine  arts.  He  assembled  at  his  court  distinguished 
litterateurs  from  all  parts  of  the  world,  with  the  view 
of  reviving  classical  learning.  He  established  a  normal 
school  called  "  The  Palatine,"  whence  classically  trained 
teachers  were  sent  into  the  provinces.  He  constructed 
gorgeous  palaces,  some  of  which  were  ornamented  with 
columns  and  sculptural  fragments,  the  spoil  of  the  earlier 
architectural  triumphs  of  Italy.  But  he  did  not  found 
schools  for  the  education  of  the  common  people.  The 
common  people  were  serfs.  The  theory  of  Plato  still 
prevailed,  namely,  that  the  majority  is  always  dull,  and 
always  wrong;  that  wisdom  and  virtue  reside  in  the 
minority.  In  pursuance  of  this  theory,  which  happens, 
curiously  enough,  to  inure  to  the  exclusive  benefit  of  its 
inventors  and  supporters,  education  was  confined  to  a 
small  class.  The  training  of  the  masses  was  wholly  neg- 
lected, and  they  were  poor,  ignorant,  and  brutal.  The 
state  of  mediaeval  society  is  graphically  summarized  by  a 
modern  historian : 

"  In  the  castle  sits  the  baron,  with  his  children  on  his 
lap,  and  his  wife  leaning  on  his  shoulder;  the  troubadour 
sings,  and  the  page  and  the  demoiselle  exchange  a  glance 
of  love.  The  castle  is  the  home  of  music  and  chivalry 
and  family  affection ;  the  convent  is  the  home  of  relig- 
ion and  of  art.  But  the  people  cower  in  their  wooden 
huts,  half  starved,  half  frozen,  and  wolves  sniff  at  them 
through  the  chinks  in  the  walls.  The  convent  prays  and 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  SOCIAL  PROBLEM.  377 

the  castle  sings;  the  cottage  hungers  and  groans  and 
dies."* 

Enterprise  was  the  slave  of  superstition  and  ignorance. 
Some  monks  in  Germany  desired  to  erect  a  corn -mill, 
but  a  neighboring  lord  objected,  declaring  that  the  wind 
belonged  to  him.  The  useful  arts  were  unknown  and  un- 
studied except  by  the  monks,  and  their  practice  of  them 
was  confined  chiefly  to  fashioning  utensils  for  the  use 
of  the  altar.  Mankind  lay  in  a  state  of  intellectual  and 
moral  paralysis.  Feudalism  emasculated  human  energy. 
One  art  only  flourished — the  art  of  war.  The  pursuit  of 
any  of  the  useful  arts,  beyond  that  of  agriculture,  by  the 
serfs,  was  impracticable,  since  sufficient  time  could  not  be 
spared  from  feudal  strife  for  the  proper  tillage  of  the 
soil.  The  vassal  was  always  subject  to  summary  call  to 
arms.  If  in  the  spring  the  noble  wished  to  fight,  the 
fields  remained  implanted ;  if  he  wished  to  fight  in  the 
fall,  the  harvest  remained  ungathered.  The  serf,  there- 
fore, led  a  precarious  life.  If  he  escaped  death  in  battle, 
he  was  still  quite  likely  to  die  of  starvation.  In  the  fer- 
tile plains  of  Lombardy,  in  the  first  half  of  the  thirteenth 
century,  there  were  five  famines  1 

Nothing  happens  without  due  cause.  The  misfort- 
unes suffered  by  the  people  of  Europe  during  the  Mid- 
dle Ages  did  not  fall  upon  them  from  the  clouds.  The 
moral  darkness  which  veiled  the  face  of  justice,  and  the 
intellectual  stupor  which  prevented  scientific  and  art 
researches,  are  not  inexplicable  mysteries.  The  vices, 
the  cruelties,  the  poverty,  an,d  the  pitiable  supersti- 
tions of  that  time  were  the  product  of  a  false  phi- 


*  "The  Martyrdom  of  Man."    By  Winwood  Reade.     New  York : 
Charles  P.  Somerby,  1876. 


278  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

losophy,  an  odious  social  caste,  and  a  state  of  general 
ignorance. 

It  happens  that  for  hundreds  of  years  of  this  period 
of  wretchedness  and  crime  there  was  in  the  heart  of 
Europe  an  industrious,  cultured,  prosperous,  and  happy 
people.  Their  religion  forbade  the  taking  of  usurious 
interest  under  terrible  moral  penalties  ;  it  also  forbade 
"  all  distinctions  of  caste,"  and  enjoined  full  social  equal- 
ity. They  were  the  friends  of  education.  "  To  every 
mosque  was  attached  a  public  school,  in  which  the  chil- 
dren of  the  poor  were  taught  to  read  and  write."  They 
established  libraries  in  their  chief  cities,  and  were  the 
patrons  of  the  sciences  and  of  the  useful  arts  in  all  their 
forms.  In  a  word,  to  the  general  prevalence  of  super- 
stition and  ignorance  in  Europe  the  Moors  in  Spain  con- 
stituted a  glowing  exception. 

"Wherever  the  Saracen  went  he  carried  science  and  art. 
He  honored  labor,  and  genius  and  learning  followed  in 
his  footsteps.  Taught  by  learned  Jews,  he  studied  the 
works  of  the  ancient  philosophers,  and  preserved  and  ex- 
tended their  knowledge  of  astronomy,  chemistry,  alge- 
bra, and  geography.  Cordova  was  the  abode  of  wealth, 
learning,  refinement,  and  the  arts.  Its  mosques  and  pal- 
aces were  models  of  architectural  splendor,  and  its  indus- 
tries employed  200,000  families.  Seville  contained  16,000 
silk-looms,  and  employed  130,000  weavers.  The  banks 
of  the  Guadalquivir  were  thickly  studded  with  those 
gems  of  free  labor,  manufacturing  villages.  The  dyeing 
of  silk  and  wool  fabrics  .was  carried  to  great  perfection, 
and  the  Moorish  metal-workers  were  the  most  expert 
of  the  time.  The  Saracen  invented  cotton  paper,  intro- 
duced into  Spain  cotton  and  leather  manufactures,  and 
promoted  the  cultivation  of  sugar-cane,  rice,  and  the  mul- 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  SOCIAL   PROBLEM.  279 

berry.  Nor  did  lie  neglect  agriculture  in  any  of  its 
branches ;  he  created  a  new  era  in  husbandry.  His  king- 
dom in  Spain  was  the  richest  and  most  prosperous  in  the 
"Western  world ;  indeed,  its  prosperity  was  in  striking 
contrast  with  the  poverty  and  misery  of  the  peoples  by 
whom  it  was  surrounded.  Under  the  third  caliph  its 
revenue  reached  £6,000,000  sterling,  a  sum,  as  Gibbon 
remarks,  which  in  the  tenth  century  probably  surpassed 
the  united  revenues  of  all  the  Christian  monarchs.  But 
these  industrious,  cultured  people  were  the  descendants 
of  invaders,  and  the  Spaniards,  under  the  influence  of  a 
blind  and  unreasoning  impulse  of  religious  and  patriotic 
zeal,  drove  them  from  the  soil  they  had  literally  made  to 
"  blossom  like  the  rose,"  and  themselves  relapsed  into  a 
state  of  indolence,  ignorance,  and  poverty. 

From  the  effects  of  the  persecution  of  a  race  of  artif- 
icers, and  the  proscription  of  the  useful  arts,  Spain  has 
never  recovered.  She  has  since  always  been,  and  is  to- 
day, a  striking  exemplification  of  the  verity  of  the  prop- 
osition that  stagnation  in  the  useful  arts  is  the  death  of 
civilization.  In  the  last  half  of  the  seventeenth  century 
the  people  of  Madrid  were  threatened  with  starvation. 
To  avert  the  impending  calamity  the  adjacent  country 
was  scoured  by  the  military,  and  the  inhabitants  com- 
pelled to  yield  supplies.  There  was  danger  that  the 
Royal  family  would  go  hungry  to  bed.  The  tax-gath- 
erer sold  houses  and  furniture,  arid  the  inhabitants  were 
forced  to  fly ;  the  fields  were  left  uncultivated,  and  mul- 
titudes died  from  want  and  exposure.  During  the  sev- 
enteenth century  Madrid  lost  half  its  population;  the 
looms  of  Seville  were  silenced ;  the  woollen  manufact- 
ures of  Toledo  were  transferred  by  the  exiled  Moriscoes 
to  Tunis ;  Castile,  Segovia,  and  Burgos  lost  their  manu- 


280  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

factures,  and  their  inhabitants  were  reduced  to  poverty 
and  despair.* 

Two  leading  causes  contributed  to  reduce  the  people 
of  Europe  during  the  Middle  Ages  to  a  state  of  moral 
obliquity,  intellectual  torpor,  and  physical  incapacity — 
the  repressive  force  of  authority  and  the  atrocious  phi- 
losophy of  contempt  of  man  formulated  by  Machiavelli. 
The  one  forbade  scientific  investigation,  the  other  stran- 
gled the  spirit  of  invention  in  the  grip  of  enforced  igno- 
rance. Authority  chilled  courage,  and  contempt  withered 
hope.  Italy  governed  the  world,  and  her  rule  consisted 
of  a  menace  and  a  sneer.  Under  this  regime  of  cruelty 
and  cynicism  man  shrunk  into  a  state  of  moral  cowardic-3 
and  intellectual  lethargy. 

The  political  maxims  which  bear  the  name  of  Machia- 
velli were  not  invented  by  him.  "When  he  formulated 
them,  in  1513,  they  had  been  in  force  in  Italy  a  thousand 
years.  These  maxims  explain  the  fact  of  the  existence 
of  a  period  of  the  world's  history  known  as  "  the  Dark 
Ages."  The  chief  of  them  divides  the  human  race  into 
three  classes,  the  members  of  the  first  of  which  under- 
stand things  by  their  own  natural  powers;  the  second 
when  they  are  explained  to  them ;  the  third  not  at  all. 
The  third  class  embraces  a  vast  majority  of  men ;  the 
second  only  a  small  number  ;  the  first  a  very  small  num- 
ber. The  first  class  is  to  rule  both  the  other  classes,  the 
second  by  craft  and  duplicity,  the  third  by  authority, 
and,  that  failing,  by  force.  Other  maxims  assume  the 
despicable  character  of  all  men,  and  justify  falsehood, 

*  "The  Intellectual  Development  of  Europe,"  Vol.  II.,  Chap.  II. 
By  John  William  Draper,  M.D.,  LL.D.  New  York:  Harper  & 
Brothers;  "History  of  Civilization  in  England,"  Vol.  II.,  Chap.  I. 
By  Henry  Thomas  Buckle.  New  York :  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  1864. 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  SOCIAL  PROBLEM.  281 

duplicity,  cruelty,  and  murder,  in  the  ruling  class.  A 
single  proposition  shows  the  infamy  of  the  whole  system, 
namely,  "  There  are  three  ways  of  deciding  any  contest 
— by  fraud,  by  force,  or  by  law,  and  a  wise  man  will 
make  the  most  suitable  choice."*  These  are  maxims  not 
of  civilization  but  of  barbarism.  They  involve  a  state 
of  slavery,  and  where  slavery  exists  the  useful  arts  de- 
cline, and  ultimately  perish.  And  so  it  was  in  the  Mid- 
dle Ages. 

Several  great  events  led  to  the  emancipation  of  the 
people  of  Europe  from  the  joint  reign  of  authority  and 
contempt.  The  learning  of  the  Jews  and  Saracens — 
their  knowledge  of  the  arts  and  sciences  —  gradually 
spread,  and  occupied  the  minds  of  cloistered  students, 
giving  to  them  an  intellectual  impulse.  The  Crusades, 
pitiful  and  prolific  of  horrors  as  they  were,  shed  a  great 
light  upon  Europe.  They  brought  the  men  of  the  West 
face  to  face  with  a  practical  progressive  civilization — a 
civilization  that  "  filled  the  earth  with  prodigies  of  hu- 
man skill."  The  Crusaders  were  told  that  they  would 
be  led  against  hordes  of  barbarians.  What  astonishment 
must  have  seized  them  when  they  stood  under  the  walls 
of  Constantinople  and  beheld  its  splendors !  Nor  was 
their  surprise  less,  doubtless,  in  the  character  of  the  foe 
they  encountered.  They  had  expected  to  meet  with 
treachery  and  cruelty;  they  found  chivalry,  courtesy, 
and  high  culture.f 

These  surprises  and  contrasts  profoundly  impressed 
the  Crusaders,  and  they  returned  to  Europe  relieved  of 

*  "  The  Prince,"  Chap.  XVIII.    By  Niccolo  Machiavelli. 

f  "The  Intellectual  Development  of  Europe,"  Vol.  II.,  pp.  135, 
136.  By  John  William  Draper,  M.D.,  LL.D.  New  York:  Harper 
&  Brothers. 


282  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

many  illusions,  and  notably  of  the  fallacy  that  the  wealth 
of  Eastern  princes  was  destined  to  supply  the  waste  of 
their  own  squandered  estates.  They  returned,  too,  to 
find  a  new  civilization  in  process  of  development.  Two 
hundred  years  of  comparative  freedom  from  the  repres- 
sive force  of  feudalism  changed  the  face  of  the  country 
and  the  character  of  its  people.  During  the  absence  of 
the  nobles,  in  the  Holy  Land,  a  middle  class  sprung  into 
existence,  possessing  the  qualities  which  always  distin- 
guish that  class — thrift  and  prudence.  The  mortgaged 
estates  of  the  Crusaders  had  fallen  partly  into  their 
hands,  and  partly  into  the  hands  of  the  Crown.  Towns 
had  sprung  up,  and  a  commercial  class  and  a  manufact- 
uring class  had  been  formed.  The  artisan  became  a  fac- 
tor in  the  social  problem.  He  offered  his  wares  to  the 
lords  and  ladies  of  the  castles,  and  they  bought  them- 
selves poor.  As  Emerson  says,  "The  banker  with  his 
seven  per  cent,  drove  the  earl  out  of  his  castle."  In  the 
eleventh  century  nobility  was  above  price,  in  the  thir- 
teenth it  was  for  sale,  and  soon  afterwards  it  was  offered 
as  a  gift. 

The  invention  of  printing,  the  art  preservative  of  all 
arts,  removed  the  seal  from  the  lips  of  learning.  The 
desire  to  conceal  is  no  match  for  the  desire  to  print. 
Thenceforth,  through  the  medium  of  types,  the  voice  of 
genius  was  destined  to  reach  to  the  ends  of  the  earth ; 
and,  more  important  still,  every  discovery  in  science,  and 
every  invention  in  art,  became  the  sure  heritage  of  future 


The  discovery  of  America  was  the  crowning  act  of 
man's  emancipation.  In  sweeping  away  the  last  vestige 
of  the  theory  on  which  patristic  geography  was  based, 
Columbus  freed  mankind.  In  the  cry  of  "  land  ho !" 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  SOCIAL   PROBLEM.  283 

with  which  he  greeted  the  new  continent,  he  sounded 
the  death-knell  of  intellectual  slavery.  His  was  the  last 
act  in  a  series  of  acts  which  struck  off  the  shackles  of 
thought,  and  let  in  upon  the  long  night  of  the  Middle 
Ages  the  clear  light  of  day.  Leonardo  da  Vinci  took  up 
the  interrupted  work  of  Archimedes,  and  the  science  of 
mechanics  made  rapid  progress.  At  last  it  was  correctly 
observed  that  "  experiment  is  the  only  interpreter  of  nat- 
ure," and  the  development  of  natural  philosophy  began. 
Bruno  was  still  to  be  burned,  and  Galileo  imprisoned. 
But  the  persecutors  of  those  great  men  were  no  longer 
moved  by  mere  blind  zeal.  They  believed  and  trembled, 
and  in  seeking  to  drown  the  truth  in  the  blood  of  the 
votaries  of  science,  they  rendered  it  more  conspicuous. 
By  the  light  of  the  flames  which  consumed  the  body  of 
the  too  daring  philosopher  a  thousand  scientists  studied 
the  stars,  the  earth,  and  the  air. 

The  invention  of  printing  paralyzed  authority,  and  the 
discovery  of  America  gave  wings  to  hope.  A  few  manu- 
scripts could  be  locked  in  vaults  or  burned,  but  millions 
of  books  must  inevitably,  ultimately,  find  their  way  to 
the  people.  Books  were,  therefore,  the  sure  promise  of 
universal  culture — the  precursor  of  the  common  school. 
The  discovery  of  another  continent  startled  the  people  of 
Europe  from  the  deep  sleep  of  a  thousand  years,  and  sent 
a  fresh  current  of  blood  surging  through  their  veins.  It 
seemed  like  a  sort  of  new  creation,  and  appealed  power- 
fully to  the  imagination.  And  it  is  always  the  imagina- 
tion that  "  blazes  "  the  path  to  glorious  achievements.  It 
is  through  the  imagination  that  men  are  moved  to  "  crave 
after  the  unseen,"  and  through  the  imagination  that  the 
human  mind  becomes  big  with  "  bold  and  lofty  concep- 
tions." A  new  world  having  been  discovered  by  one  man, 


284  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

it  was  natural  that  all  men  should  be  put  upon  inquiry. 
Hence  the  era  of  investigation,  the  resulting  discoveries 
of  science,  and  their  innumerable  applications,  through 
the  useful  arts,  to  the  fast  multiplying  needs  of  man. 


EDUCATION  AND   THE  SOCIAL  PROBLEM.  285 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 
EDUCATION  AND  THE  SOCIAL  PROBLEM— HISTORIC. 

EUROPE. 

The  Standing  Army  a  Legacy  of  Evil  from  the  Middle  Ages. — It  is 
the  Controlling  Feature  of  the  European  Situation. — Its  Collateral 
Evils:  "Wars  and  Debts. — The  Debts  of  Europe  Represent  a  Series 
of  Colossal  Crimes  against  the  People ;  with  the  Armies  and  Na- 
vies they  Absorb  the  Bulk  of  the  Annual  Revenue.— The  People 
Fleeing  from  them. — They  Threaten  Bankruptcy ;  they  Prevent 
Education.— Germany,  the  best-educated  Nation  in  Europe,  losing 
most  by  Emigration. — Her  People  will  not  Endure  the  Standing 
Army. — The  Folly  of  the  European  International  Policy  of  Hate. 
— It  is  Possible  for  Europe  to  Restore  to  Productive  Employ- 
ments 3,000,000  of  men,  to  place  at  the  Disposal  of  her  Educators 
$700,000,000,  instead  of  $70,000,000  per  annum,  and  to  pay  her 
National  Debts  in  Fifty-four  Years,  simply  by  the  Disbandment 
of  her  Armies  and  Navies. — The  Armament  of  Europe  Stands  in 
the  Way  of  Universal  Education  and  of  Universal  Industrial  Pros- 
perity.— Standing  Armies  the  Last  Analysis  of  Selfishness ;  they 
are  Coeval  with  the  Revival  during  the  Middle  Ages  of  the  Greco- 
Roman  Subjective  Methods  of  Education.  —  They  must  go  out 
when  the  New  Education  comes  in. 

THE  mediaeval  period  conferred  upon  man  two  great 
blessings — a  new  continent  and  the  art  of  printing.  It 
also  left  a  legacy  of  evil.  With  the  partition  of  Europe 
into  great  States  the  modern  age  began,  and  it  began 
with  this  inheritance  of  evil  from  the  Middle  Ages — the 
standing  army. 

The  feudal  lords  wrecked  their  estates  and  sacrificed 
their  lives  during  the  Crusades,  and  a  middle  class  arose 
and  united  with  the  kings  in  the  government  of  the 


286  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

State.  But  this  alliance  was  of  short  duration ;  it  soon 
gave  way  to  an  alliance  which  proved  to  be  enduring — 
an  alliance  between  the  aristocracy  and  the  kings. 

By  the  ruin  of  feudalism  thousands  of  serfs  were  set 
free.  Trained  to  arms,  it  was  easy  to  make  soldiers  of 
them.  They  were  accordingly  converted  into  merce- 
'nary  troops — mustered  into  the  service  of  the  new  alli- 
ance as  guards  of  the  modern  State.  Thus  the  standing 
armies  of  the  "great  powers"  originated.  This  legacy 
of  evil  has  so  increased  in  magnitude  that  it  is,  to-day, 
the  dominant  feature  of  European  public  economy,  and 
the  portentous  fact  of  the  social  problem. 

The  standing  armies  of  Europe  number  two  million  five 
hundred  thousand  men,  and  their  naval  auxiliaries  con- 
sist of  three  thousand  vessels,  thirty  thousand  guns,  and 
two  hundred  thousand  men.  This  is  the  mammoth  evil 
bequeathed  to  Europe  by  the  Middle  Ages,  and  out  of 
it  many  collateral  evils  have  sprung,  as  wars,  debts,  and 
exorbitant  tax  levies. 

Thirty  years  ago  the  national  debts  of  the  govern- 
ments of  Europe  had  risen  to  $9,000,000,000.  Since  that 
time  they  have  doubled  !  The  cause  of  this  vast  increase 
is  easy  to  find.  It  consists  chiefly  of  four  great  wars, 
namely,  the  Crimean  war  of  1854-56,  the  Franco-Sar- 
dinian war  against  Austria  in  1859,  the  German-Italian 
war  of  1866,  and  the  Franco-Prussian  war  of  1870-72. 
These  wars  were  waged  to  maintain  what  is  termed  the 
balance  of  power ;  they  involved  no  principle  affecting 
the  rights  of  man.  "Whatever  their  issue,  no  gain  could 
hence  accrue  to  the  people  of  Europe.  And  this  is  the 
nature  of  most  of  the  wars  in  which  the  standing  armies 
of  Europe  have  been  employed  since  their  organization. 
But  the  European  budget  shows  that  they  are  the  over- 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  SOCIAL  PROBLEM.  287 

shadowing  feature  of  the  European  governmental  sys- 
tems. 

The  annual  revenue  of  the  States  of  Europe  is  about 
$1,725,000,000.  Of  this  sum  $700,000,000  is  devoted  to 
the  support  of  the  standing  armies  and  navies,  and  as 
much  more  is  required  to  meet  the  interest  charge  on 
the  debts  created  in  the  prosecution  of  wars  waged  to 
maintain  the  balance  of  power!  Thus,  of  the  aggregate 
of  European  revenue,  the  sum  of  $1,400,000,000  is  de- 
voted to  the  purely  supposititious  theory  that  the  sub- 
jects of  the  great  powers  are  inflamed  with  an  intense 
desire  to  cut  one  another's  throats,  while  the  small  sum 
of  $325,000,000  is  left  for  the  support  of  the  civil  serv- 
ice, comprising  all  the  strictly  legitimate  objects  of  gov- 
ernment, and  including  education !  • 

The  national  debts  of  Europe  represent  a  series  of 
colossal  crimes  against  the  people.  They  were  incurred 
in  the  prosecution  of  unnecessary  wars,  and  for  the  sup- 
port of  unnecessary  standing  armies.  With  relation  to 
these  debts  the  people  are  divided  into  two  classes — one 
class  owns  them  and  the  other  class  pays  interest  on 
them.  This  relationship  comprehends  future  generations 
in  perpetuity.  Every  child  born  in  Europe  inherits 
either  an  estate  in  these  debts  or  an  obligation  to  con- 
tribute towards  the  payment  of  the  interest  upon  them. 
Thus  the  fruits  of  a  great  crime  have  been  transmuted 
into  a  vested  right  in  one  class  of  people,  and  into  a 
vested  wrong  in  another  class.* 

*  "For  instance,  I  have  seven  thousand  pounds  in  what  we  call 
the  Funds  or  Founded  things;  but  I  am  not  comfortable  about  the 
founding  of  them.  All  that  I  can  see  of  them  is  a  square  bit  of 
paper,  with  some  ugly  printing  on  it,  and  all  that  I  know  of  them  is 
that  this  bit  of  paper  gives  me  the  right  to  tax  you  every  year,  and 


288  MANUAL  TKAINING. 

If  the  European  standing  armies  and  navies  had  not 
been  raised  and  kept  up,  and  if  the  revenue  devoted  to 
their  support  had  been  expended  for  schools,  there  would 
not  now  be  an  uneducated  person  in  Europe.  If  these 
standing  armies  and  navies  were  now  disbanded,  and  the 
revenue  at  present  expended  for  their  support  diverted 
to  the  support  of  schools,  and  so  applied  continuously 
for  half  a  century,  there  would  not  be,  at  the  end  of  that 
period,  an  illiterate  person  in  Europe. 

Under  existing  conditions  the  debts  of  the  European 
nations  cannot  be  paid.  But  vast  as  the  sum  of  them  is, 
their  payment  is  not  only  possible,  but  practicable  in  a 
very  short  time.  Disband  the  standing  armies  and  navies, 
and  continue  the  present  rate  of  taxation,  and  there  would 
be  an  annual  surplus  revenue  of  $700,000,000.  Apply 
this  sum,  together  with  the  surplus  of  the  interest  appro- 
priation, accruing  through  the  resulting  yearly  decrease 
of  the  interest  charge,  to  the  liquidation  of  these  debts, 
and  they  would  be  extinguished  in  about  twenty  years. 
But  if  the  period  during  which  provision  is  made  for 
the  extinguishment  of  these  debts  be  extended  to  fifty- 
four  years,  and,  meantime,  the  present  rate  of  taxation  be 
maintained,  there  would  be  released  and  rendered  avail- 
make  you  pay  me  two  hundred  pounds  out  of  your  wages;  which  is 
very  pleasant  for  me  ;  but  how  long  will  you  be  pleased  to  do  so  ? 
Suppose  it  should  occur  to  you,  any  summer's  day,  that  you  had  bet- 
ter not  ?  Where  would  my  seven  thousand  pounds  be  ?  In  fact, 
where  are  they  now  ?  We  call  ourselves  a  rich  people  ;  but  you  see 
this  seven  thousand  pounds  of  mine  has  no  real  existence — it  only 
means  that  you,  the  workers,  are  poorer  by  two  hundred  pounds  a 
year  than  you  would  be  if  I  hadn't  got  it.  And  this  is  surely  a  very 
odd  kind  of  money  for  a  country  to  boast  of." — "  Fors  Clavigera," 
Part  I.,  p.  67.  By  John  Ruskin,  LL.D.  New  York:  John  Wiley 
&  Sons,  1880. 


EDUCATION   AND  THE  SOCIAL  PROBLEM.  ggg 

able  for  educational  purposes,  annually,  the  sum  of 
$600,000,000. 

What  is  the  purpose,  it  may  be  inquired,  of  these  cal- 
culations? Their  purpose  is  to  show  what  the  armies 
and  navies  of  Europe  cost,  and  what  they  stand  in  the 
way  of.  They  cost  so  much  that  not  a  dollar  of  the 
national  debts  of  Europe  can  be  paid  while  they  con- 
tinue to  exist.  They  cost  so  much  that  the  people  who 
are  taxed  to  support  them  are  fleeing  from  them  as  from 
a  scourge.  They  cost  so  much  that  the  decline  of  the 
nations  which  support  them  has  already  begun,  and  this 
decline  can  be  arrested  only  by  their  disbandment. 

That  the  nations  of  Europe  are  declining  is  shown  by 
the  statistics  of  emigration.  The  foundation  of  national 
prosperity  is  manual  labor.  There  must  be  a  solid  basis 
of  industrial  growth  for  the  superstructure  of  elegance, 
refinement,  luxury,  and  culture.  Manual  labor  is  as  es- 
sential to  triumphs  in  literature,  music,  and  the  fine  arts 
as  the  foundations  of  the  Brooklyn  Bridge,  buried  in  the 
earth,  are  to  the  beautiful  arch  which  spans  the  great 
river.  And  in  the  strife  for  supremacy  between  the 
nations  of  the  world  the  maintenance  of  these  triumphs 
depends,  also,  upon  manual  labor.*  The  real  flower  of  a 

*  "  Now,  therefore,  see  briefly  what  it  all  comes  to.  First,  you 
spend  eighty  millions  of  money  in  fireworks  [war],  doing  no  end  of 
damage  in  letting  them  off. 

"Then  you  borrow  money  to  pay  the  firework-maker's  bill,  from 
any  gain-loving  persons  who  have  got  it 

' '  And  then,  dressing  your  bailiff's  men  in  new  red  coats  and  cocked 
hats,  you  send  them  drumming  and  trumpeting  into  the  fields,  to 
take  the  peasants  by  the  throat,  and  make  them  pay  the  interest  on 
what  you  have  borrowed,  and  the  expense  of  the  cocked  hats  besides. 

"That  is  'financiering,'  my  friends,  as  the  mob  of  the  money- 
makers understand  it.  And  they  understand  it  well.  For  that  id 


290  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

population  is,  therefore,  its  labor  class.  All  other  classes 
depend  upon  it,  and  all  national  triumphs  spring  from  it. 
Hence  a  drain  upon  the  labor  class  of  a  nation  is  a  drain 
upon  its  most  vital  resource.  The  nation  that  suffers 
such  a  drain  continuously  is  in  its  decadence.  It  loses 
some  of  its  vigor,  some  of  its  productive  power,  and  the 
loss  is  not  supplied.  True,  the  poor  emigrant  takes  with 
him  no  part  of  the  splendors  of  the  country  he  leaves, 
but  his  brawny  arm  and  skilled  hand  have  contributed  to 
the  support  of  national  pomp  and  social  elegance,  and  as 
he  steps  aboard  the  steamer  he  withdraws  that  support 
forever. 

Napoleon  the  Infamous  plundered  the  conquered  cap- 
itals of  Europe  to  beautify  and  enrich  the  art  treasuries 
of  Paris.  The  art  treasures  of  Europe  are  destined  to 
cross  the  ocean,  in  the  track  of  the  column  of  emigration, 
if  the  flower  of  her  labor  class  continues  to  flee  from  her 
standing  armies  and  navies,  as  the  statues  of  Rome  fol- 
lowed the  army  of  the  modern  Caesar.  For  where  the 
flower  of  the  world's  labor  class  gathers,  there  wealth 
most  abounds.  Labor,  not  gold  and  silver,  not  land,  is 
the  source  of  wealth,  hence  it  is  to  the  laborer  that  art 
triumphs  are  due,  and  this  is  the  order  of  their  devel- 
opment. The  laborer  provides  for  immediate,  pressing 
wants;  he  is  prudent,  and  accumulates  a  surplus;  he 
hungers  for  education ;  he  develops  a  love  of  the  beauti- 

what  it  always  comes  to,  finally — taking  the  peasant  by  the  throat. 
He  must  pay — for  he  only  can.  Food  can  only  be  got  out  of  the 
ground,  and  all  these  devices  of  soldiership,  and  law,  and  arithmetic, 
are  but  ways  of  getting  at  last  down  to  him,  the  furrow-driver,  and 
snatching  the  roots  from  him  as  he  digs." — "  Fors  Clavigera,"  Part 
II.,  p.  27.  By  John  Ruskin,  LL.D.  New  York:  John  Wiley  & 
Sons,  1882. 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  SOCIAL  PROBLEM.  291 

ful ;  he  seeks  to  dignify  his  life  and  adorn  his  home ;  he 
patronizes  art ;  he  draws  to  himself  the  art  treasures  of 
the  world. 

The  standing  armies  and  navies  of  Europe  have  cost 
the  European  laborer  the  sacrifice  of  all  these  pleasing 
and  noble  aspirations.  Beyond  the  point  of  providing 
for  "  immediate  pressing  wants  "  he  has  not  been  able 
to  pass.  His  surplus  goes  to  the  tax-gatherer,  to  feed 
and  clothe  the  army  and  the  navy.  His  desire  for  edu- 
cation, his  love  of  the  beautiful,  his  hope  of  a  digni- 
fied life,  and  of  a  home  adorned  by  art  —  these  all  are 
dreams,  illusions,  which  vanish  into  thin  air  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  substantial  fact  of  the  annual  European  bud- 
get— for  the  support  of  the  standing  armies  and  navies 
$700,000,000 ! 

In  the  way  of  the  payment  of  the  national  debts  of 
Europe  her  standing  armies  and  navies  rear  themselves 
like  an  impassable  wall.  Against  any  general  education- 
al system  they  have  hitherto  constituted  an  insurmounta- 
ble barrier ;  and  in  the  future,  as  in  the  past,  their  main- 
tenance dooms  the  masses  to  illiteracy.  They  stand  in 
the  way  especially  of  the  incorporation,  in  the  curricu- 
lum of  the  public  schools,  of  the  manual  element  in  edu- 
cation, because  it  is  the  most  expensive,  as  it  is  the  most 
important  part  of  instruction. 

Germany  affords  an  admirable  example  of  the  power 
of  education,  even  though  defective  in  character,  and  of 
the  disgust  with  which  standing  armies  inspire  an  intel- 
ligent people.  The  Germans  are  the  best-educated  peo- 
ple in  Europe.  The  educational  system  of  Germany  was 
established  by  Prussia  as  a  politico  -  economic  measure 
after  the  humiliation  of  the  German  States  by  Bona- 
parte. Said  Frederick  "William,  "  Though  territory,  pow- 

13 


392  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

er,  and  prestige  be  lost,  they  can  be  regained  by  ac- 
quiring intellectual  and  moral  power."  The  outcome 
of  the  Franco-Prussian  war  of  1870  verified  the  truth 
of  this  prediction.  Her  freedom  from  debt  enabled 
Prussia  to  inaugurate  and  carry  forward  a  comprehen- 
sive educational  system,  which  in  turn  enabled  her  not 
only  to  vanquish  her  ancient  enemy,  but  to  make  France 
pay  the  cost  of  her  own  humiliation.  Thus  at  a  single 
stroke  Prussia  avenged  the  defeats  suffered  at  the  hands 
of  the  first  Napoleon,  and  permanently  weakened  France 
by  compelling  her  vastly  to  increase  her  national  debt. 

The  alacrity  with  which  the  French  people  subscribed 
for  the  new  bonds  was  much  remarked  upon,  at  the  time, 
as  evincing  both  financial  soundness  and  patriotism.  But 
the  really  grave  feature  of  the  situation — the  vast  aug- 
mentation of  the  public  burdens  of  France — was  scarcely 
mentioned,  and  was,  perhaps,  philosophically  considered 
only  by  that  astute  statesman,  Prince  Bismarck.  The 
war  with  Germany  cost  France  $2,000,000,000,  and  com- 
pelled an  enormous  increase  of  taxation.  The  debt  state- 
ment for  1877  was  $4,635,000,000  —  the  expenditures 
$533,000,000 ;  and  of  this  latter  sum  $373,000,000  were 
absorbed  by  the  army,  the  navy,  and  the  national  debt ! 

The  significant  feature  of  the  European  situation  is 
the  freedom  from  debt  of  Germany.  It  is  by  virtue  of 
this  fact  that  she  holds  the  first  place  in  Europe.  Her 
rate  of  taxation  is  as  low  as  that  of  little  Switzerland. 
All  the  other  Great  Powers  are  hampered  by  great  debts. 
Spain  is  bankrupt ;  she  does  not  pay  the  interest  on  her 
debt.  Austria  increases  her  debt  every  year ;  she  is  prac- 
tically bankrupt.  It  is  only  a  question  of  time,  if  stand- 
ing armies  and  navies  continue  to  be  maintained  and 
wars  to  occur,  when  all  the  debtor  nations  will  be  re- 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  SOCIAL  PROBLEM.  393 

duced  to  bankruptcy.*  The  nation  sinks  as  the  column 
of  debt  rises.  France  cannot  double  her  debt  again  and 
make  her  people  pay  interest  on  it.  England  draws 
from  her  people  a  larger  per  capita  revenue  than  any 
other  nation  of  Europe,  and  she  has  nearly  touched  the 
limit  of  their  capacity  to  pay  taxes.  A  sudden  and  con- 
siderable increase  of  her  debt  would  strain  the  Govern- 
ment, and  might  shatter  it. 

Thus,  the  more  searching  the  analysis  of  the  Euro- 
pean situation,  the  more  clear  does  the  exceptional 
strength  of  Germany  appear.  But  out  of  her  abundant 
strength  a  weakness  has  been  evolved.  The  system  of 
education  that  rendered  the  Germans  so  powerful  against 
France  as  soldiers,  has  made  them  thoughtful  citizens. 
It  has  revolutionized  the  public  sentiment  of  Germany 
on  the  subject  of  government.  In  the  place  of  passion 
it  has  substituted  reason.  The  Prussian  "subject"  for 
whom  the  king  thought,  has  become  a  German  citizen 
who  thinks  for  himself,  and  one  of  his  earliest  reflec- 
tions is  that,  in  modern  civilization,  a  standing  army  is  a 
solecism.  The  ignorant  Prussian  hated  the  French  be- 
cause hatred  of  them  was  enjoined  upon  him  as  the  cor- 
relative of  the  duty  of  blind  devotion  to  his  king.  But 
the  educated  German  knows  that  the  sole  motive  of  the 
continuance  of  the  standing  army  is  the  maintenance  of 
the  balance  of  power,  which  is  merely  a  tacit  agree- 
ment between  the  European  rulers,  by  divine  right,  to 
perpetuate  their  own  lease  of  power.  Hence  the  "in- 


*  "  The  progress  of  the  enormous  debts  which  at  present  oppress, 
and  will  in  the  long  run  probably  ruin,  all  the  great  Nations  of  Eu- 
rope, has  been  pretty  uniform." — "  Wealth  of  Nations,"  Vol.  III.,  p. 
392.  By  Adam  Smith,  LL.D.,  F.R.S.  Edinburgh,  1819. 


294  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

tellectual  and  moral  power  "  conferred  upon  the  German 
people,  by  education,  reacts  upon  Germany  in  the  form 
of  a  drain  of  the  flower  of  her  population  by  emigra- 
tion. 

The  citizenship  of  Germany  is  more  valuable,  in  an 
economic  sense,  than  that  of  any  other  country  of  Eu- 
rope— more  valuable  because  Germany  is  the  most  pow- 
erful nation  of  the  European  family  of  States;  more 
valuable  because  of  them  all  she  alone  is  free  from  debt ; 
more  valuable  by  reason  of  her  more  moderate  scale  of 
taxation.  But  she  still  furnishes  the  heaviest  contingent 
to  the  columns  of  emigration  steadily  moving  towards 
the  United  States.  In  a  word,  the  most  valuable  citi- 
zenship in  Europe — that  of  Germany — is  least  regarded 
and  most  freely  surrendered.  Why  ?  Because  the  Ger- 
mans are  the  best-educated  people  in  Europe.  Poor  as 
the  German  primary  school  system  is,  it  is  universal,  and 
it  has  destroyed  what  it  was  founded  chiefly  to  promote 
and  perpetuate,  namely,  reverence  for,  and  loyalty  to, 
government  by  Divine  right.  German  intelligence  re- 
volts from  taxation  for  the  support  of  a  standing  army. 
It  revolts  from  the  theory  and  policy  of  hate  upon  which 
standing  armies  are  based.  It  comprehends  perfectly 
that  the  standing  army  is  a  menace  to  the  freedom 
of  the  citizen,  at  home,  rather  than  a  defence  against 
pretended  danger  from  abroad.  It  scorns,  as  absurd, 
the  threadbare  assumption  that  Englishmen,  Frenchmen, 
Italians,  Russians,  and  Germans  desire  to  fly  at  one  an- 
other's throats,  and  that  they  can  be  restrained  only  by 
a  cordon  of  bayonets.  It  realizes  that  the  perpetuation 
of  the  era  of  hate,  through  the  standing  army,  retards 
the  mental  and  physical  progress  of  the  human  race, 
which  would  be  greatly  promoted  by  the  free  intermin- 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  SOCIAL  PROBLEM.  295 

gling  of  the  various  nationalities  of  Europe.*  That  it  is 
from  the  standing  army  that  the  emigrant  flees  is  shown 
by  the  records  of  the  military  department  of  the  Ger- 
man government. 

In  the  year  1883  twenty-nine  thousand  men  were  ar- 
rested for  attempting  to  emigrate  from  Germany  to  avoid 
the  required  military  service,  and  more  than  a  hundred 
thousand  others,  from  whom  service  was  due,  refused, 
both  to  report  for  duty,  and  to  furnish  the  required  ex- 
cuses for  the  failure  to  enroll  themselves. 

The  law  of  Germany  requires  every  male  citizen,  capa- 
ble of  bearing  arms,  to  serve  three  years  in  the  standing 
army — to  devote  three  of  the  best  years  of  his  life  to  the 
preservation  of  the  balance  of  power  in  Europe !  In  ad- 
dition, he  must  serve  four  years  in  the  reserve,  and  five 
years  in  the  landwehr.  And  this  service  is  regarded  as 
a  debt  due  the  government.  Every  male  child  born  in 
Germany  contracts  this  debt,  in  contemplation  of  law,  in 
the  act  of  drawing  his  first  breath,  and  nothing  but  death 
releases  him  from  the  obligation.  Having  been  taught 
in  the  emperor's  schools  to  love  the  emperor,  when  he 
reaches  the  military  age,  a  musket  is  placed  in  his  hands, 

*  The  multiplicity  of  languages  is  due  to  the  policy  of  interna- 
tional hate,  inaugurated  by  the  nations  of  Europe  to  promote  the 
selfish  purposes  of  rulers.  Barbarism  is  diversity;  civilization  is 
unity.  The  human  race  is  one,  provided  it  is  civilized,  and  it  should 
have  but  one  language.  Language  is  a  tool,  and  time  consumed  in 
acquiring  skill  in  the  use  of  more  than  one  tool  designed  for  the 
same  end,  is  wasted.  The  standing  armies  of  Europe  obstruct  the 
way  to  unity  of  language.  The  time  will  come  when  all  civilized 
peoples  will  speak  one  tongue.  Then  language  will  cease  to  be  a 
mere  vain  accomplishment,  and  become  what  it  ought  always  to 
have  been,  the  simple  means  of  familiarizing  the  mind  with  things, 
and  of  the  communication  of  knowledge. 


296  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

and  he  is  taught  to  shoot  the  emperor's  enemies.  If  he 
refuses  to  enter  the  army  he  is  fined ;  if  he  refuses  to 
pay  the  fine  he  is  imprisoned. 

The  German  emperor  attributes  the  decline  in  the 
military  organization  to  the  negligence  of  his  military 
staff,  but  its  true  cause  is  the  German  educational  sys- 
tem. The  steady  augmentation  of  the  rolls  of  military 
delinquents  is  the  measure  of  the  growth  of  German  in- 
telligence. The  ease  with  which  Germany  conquered 
France  flattered  the  vanity  of  the  educated  German,  but 
it  did  not  prevent  him  from  emigrating  to  America.  To 
the  cultured  mind  the  army  that  wins  the  contest  in 
which  no  principle  is  involved  is  as  odious  as  the  army 
that  loses.  To  the  cultured  mind  all  standing  armies  are 
odious,  because  they  are  an  embodied  assumption  of  the 
barbarism  of  man,  and  a  denial  of  the  efficacy  of  reason. 
The  great  stream  of  German  emigration  attests  the  su- 
periority of  German  culture.  The  educated  German  de- 
clines to  learn  the  art  of  shooting  the  emperor's  enemies, 
but  he  knows  that  Germany  is,  in  fact,  governed  by  its 
standing  army — by  muskets — and  he  quits  the  country. 

Thus  the  chief  power  of  Germany  becomes  her  chief 
weakness.  A  system  of  education  which  has  made  her 
the  first  nation  in  Europe  produces  wide-spread  discon- 
tent among  her  people,  because  she  is  governed  by  obso- 
lete ideas.  ISTor  can  the  loss  in  virile  force  suffered  by 
Germany,  through  emigration,  be  made  good  by  a  counter 
movement  of  immigrants  from  the  less  favored  countries 
of  Europe.  The  economic  condition  of  Germany — her 
freedom  from  debt  and  her  comparatively  low  rate  of 
taxation — invite  such  a  movement.  But  the  European 
policy  of  international  hate,  created  and  perpetuated  by 
standing  armies,  forbids  Germany  to  recoup  her  losses  of 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  SOCIAL  PROBLEM.  297 

men  to  America,  through  corresponding  gains  of  men 
from  the  overtaxed  populations  of  neighboring  coun- 
tries. The  grinning  skeletons  of  a  hundred  battles  in 
which  the  rival  nationalities  of  Europe  have  been  pitted 
against  one  another,  rise  to  challenge  the  social  inter- 
mingling of  peoples  separated  for  centuries  by  the  arts 
of  diplomacy,  traditions  of  blood  and  flames,  and  the  ser- 
ried ranks  of  standing  armies. 

The  disposition  of  Germans  to  emigrate  irritates  the 
emperor  and  his  prime-minister.  The  loss  of  numbers 
might  be  borne,  for  notwithstanding  the  steady  outward 
flow  of  emigrants  there  is  a  slight  increase  of  popula- 
tion in  Germany.  But  it  is  the  quality  of  the  exodus 
that  annoys  the  emperor  and  his  chancellor.  The  Ger- 
man emigrants  are  strong  men  and  women — strong  men- 
tally and  physically.  All  the  weaklings,  all  the  paupers, 
all  the  imbeciles,  the  aged,  and  the  infirm  remain,  only 
the  young  and  vigorous  go.  Those  who  go  have  been 
taught  at  the  expense  of  the  State  to  love  the  emperor 
and  hate  his  enemies,  but  they  do  neither.  The  German 
system  of  education,  from  the  point  of  view  of  rulers  by 
divine  right,  is,  hence,  a  conspicuous  failure.  It  makes 
better  men  but  poorer  subjects.  The  more  thoroughly 
the  man  is  educated  the  more  valuable  he  is  to  himself 
and  to  the  community,  but  the  less  valuable  to  his  king. 
His  growth  in  intelligence  is  the  measure  of  his  decline 
in  reverence  for  rulers  by  divine  right,  and  the  standing 
armies  by  which  they  are  alone  supported.  This  is  the 
cause  of  German  emigration,  and  its  effect  is  to  weaken 
the  German  Empire.  Germany  is  not  so  strong  as  she 
was  when  her  armies  swept  over  France ;  she  declines  in 
power  each  year,  through  the  loss  of  men — the  sole  sup- 
port of  a  State.  They  flee  from  her  standing  army  to 


298  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

the  United  States,  a  republic  with  only  a  handful  of  sol- 
diers. 

The  system  of  education  established  to  increase  the 
power  of  Prussia  in  Europe  has  accomplished  its  pur- 
pose. But  it  has  done  much  more  —  something  never 
thought  of  by  its  founders.  It  has  produced  a  wide- 
spread feeling  of  intelligent  discontent ;  and  discontent 
is  an  inarticulate  cry  for  reform.  The  cultured  German 
scorns  the  standing  army,  refuses  to  serve  in  it,  protests 
against  its  longer  existence,  and  demands  more  and  bet- 
ter education  for  his  children.  His  protest  is  unheeded, 
and  he  quits  the  country.  But  the  demand  for  higher 
education  is  not,  cannot  be,  disregarded.  Intelligence  is 
contagious;  it  infects  with  a  thirst  for  knowledge  all 
with  whom  it  comes  in  contact.  Education  is  the  arch- 
revolutionist  whose  onward  march  is  irresistible.  Soon 
a  riper  culture  will  make  the  German  Protestants  more 
courageous  and  more  imperative  in  their  demands,  and 
they  will  remain  in  the  country  to  enforce  them.  Edu- 
cation made  Germany  the  first  military  power  in  Europe ; 
but  education  could  not  have  been  put  to  a  more  ignoble 
service.  The  desire  of  intelligent  Germans  is  that  Ger- 
many shall  become  the  first  industrial  power  in  Europe, 
and  this  desire  can  be  realized  by  the  disbandment  of  her 
standing  army. 

This  review  of  the  situation  in  Europe  shows  that  it  is 
practicable  for  her  to  restore,  at  once,  to  productive  em- 
ployments three  millions  of  men  —  the  flower  of  her 
population — now  not  only  idle,  but  a  public  charge.  It 
shows,  also,  that  it  is  practicable  for  Europe  to  place,  at 
once,  at  the  disposal  of  her  educators  $700,000,000  per 
annum  instead  of  $70,000,000  per  annum,  as  at  present. 
The  corollary  of  these  two  propositions  is  a  third,  name- 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  SOCIAL  PROBLEM.  299 

ly,  that  it  is  practicable  for  Europe  to  extinguish  her 
national  debts  in  fifty-four  years.  It  follows  that  the 
regular  armies  of  Europe  alone  stand  in  the  way  of 
universal  education,  and  of  universal  industrial  pros- 
perity. 

Standing  armies  everywhere  within  the  lines  of  ad- 
vanced civilization  must  soon  disappear  before  the  march 
of  education.*  Social  questions  cannot  much  longer  be 
settled  by  emigration.  The  world's  virgin  soil  is  being 
rapidly  appropriated.  When  the  surface  of  the  whole 
earth  shall  have  become  occupied,  barbarisms  of  every 
nature  \vill  be  intolerable.  Man  must  then  be  highly 
civilized,  and  the  only  highly  civilizing  influence  is  edu- 
cation. The  age  of  force  is  passing  away;  the  age  of 
science  and  art — the  age  of  industrial  development — has 
begun,  and  standing  armies  are  as  abnormal  in  Europe 

*  "This  nation  to-day  is  in  profound  peace  with  the  world;  but 
in  my  judgment  it  has  before  it  a  great  duty,  which  will  not  only 
make  that  profound  peace  permanent,  but  shall  set  such  an  example 
as  will  absolutely  abolish  war  on  this  continent,  and  by  a  great  ex- 
ample and  a  lofty  moral  precedent  shall  ultimately  abolish  it  in  other 
continents.  I  am  justified  in  saying  that  every  one  of  the  seventeen 
independent  Powers  of  North  and  South  America  is  not  only  willing 
but  ready — is  not  only  ready  but  eager — to  enter  into  a  solemn  com- 
pact in  a  congress  that  may  be  called  in  the  name  of  peace,  to  agree 
that  if,  unhappily,  differences  shall  arise  —  as  differences  will  arise 
between  men  and  nations— they  shall  be  settled  upon  the  peaceful 
and  Christian  basis  of  arbitration. 

"And,  as  I  have  often  said  before,  I  am  glad  to  repeat,  in  this  great 
centre  of  civilization  and  power,  that  in  my  judgment  no  national 
spectacle,  no  international  spectacle,  no  continental  spectacle,  could 
be  more  grand  than  that  the  republics  of  the  Western  world  should 
meet  together  and  solemnly  agree  that  neither  the  soil  of  North  nor 
that  of  South  America  shall  be  hereafter  stained  by  brothers'  blood." 
— Extract  from  the  Speech  of  Hon.  James  G.  Elaine  at  the  Delmonico 
Dinner,  October  29, 1884. 

13* 


800  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

now  as  slavery  was  in  the  United  States  twenty-five  years 
ago.* 

Standing  armies  are  the  instruments  of  tyranny ;  they 
are  the  last  analysis  of  selfishness,  the  incarnation  of  de- 
pravity; for  they  do  not  reason  —  they  strike.  It  is 
worthy  of  note  that  the  standing  armies  of  Europe  are 
coeval  with  the  revival  of  learning,  and  the  revival  of 
learning  was  a  revival  of  the  Greco-Roman  subjective 
educational  methods.  The  logical  effect  of  those  meth- 
ods was  the  promotion  of  selfishness,  and  the  standing 
armies  conserved  the  selfish  designs  of  the  rulers  of  the 
newly-formed  States.  It  is  hence  not  a  mere  coincidence 
that  standing  armies  and  the  revival  of  learning  through 
subjective  processes  of  thought  are  of  common  origin. 
The  Machiavellian  philosophy  of  cruelty,  duplicity,  and 
contempt  of  man  sprung  logically  from  egoism,  and  as 
logically  led  to  the  formation  of  standing  armies — bodies 
of  armed  men,  trained,  under  compulsion,  to  kill,  burn, 
and  destroy. 

The  synonyms  of  the  standing  army  are  selfishness 
and  its  vile  issue,  feudalism,  serfdom,  slavery,  ignorance, 
and  contempt  of  man.  These  conditions  are  passing 
away,  and  the  standing  army,  the  worst,  as  it  is  the  most 
costly  relic  of  savagery,  must  pass  away  with  them.  It 
cannot  withstand  the  advance  of  the  new  education, 
whose  mission  is  peace,  whose  quest  is  the  truth,  whose 
premise  is  a  fact,  whose  conclusion  is  a  thing  of  use  and 
beauty,  and  whose  goal  is  justice. 

*  "It  is  only  slowly,  and  after  having  been  long  in  contact  with 
society,  that  man  becomes  more  indulgent  towards  others  and  more 
severe  towards  himself." — "  Suicide:  an  Essay  on  Comparative  Moral 
Statistics,"  p.  226.  By  Henry  Morselli,  M.D.  New  York:  D.  Ap- 
pleton&  Co.,  1882. 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  SOCIAL  PROBLEM.  3Q1 


CHAPTER  XXV. 
EDUCATION  AND  THE  SOCIAL  PROBLEM— HISTORIC. 

AMERICA. 

An  Old  Civilization  in  a  New  Country. — Old  Methods  in  a  New  Sys- 
tem of  Schools. — Sordid  Views  of  Education. — The  highest  Aim 
Money-getting. — Herbert  Spencer  on  the  English  Schools. — Same 
Defects  in  the  American  Schools. — Maxims  of  Selfishness. — The 
Cultivation  of  Avarice. — Political  Incongruities. — Negroes  escap- 
ing from  Slavery  called  Fugitives  from  Justice. — The  Results  of 
Subjective  Educational  Processes. — Climatic  Influences  alone  saved 
America  from  becoming  a  Slave  Empire. — Illiteracy. — Abnormal 
Growth  of  Cities.— Failure  of  Justice. — Defects  of  Education  shown 
in  Reckless  and  Corrupt  Legislation. — Waste  of  an  Empire  of  Pub- 
lic Land. — Henry  D.  Lloyd's  History  of  Congressional  Land  Grants. 
— The  Growth  and  Power  of  Corporations. — The  Origin  of  large 
Fortunes,  Speculations. — Old  Social  Forces  producing  old  Social 
Evils.  —  Still  America  is  the  Hope  of  the  World.  — The  Right  of 
Suffrage  in  the  United  States  justifies  the  Sentiment  of  Patriotism. 
— Let  Suffrage  be  made  Intelligent  and  Virtuous,  and  all  Social 
Evils  will  yield  to  it ;  and  all  the  Wealth  of  the  Country  is  subject 
to  the  Draft  of  the  Ballot  for  Education.— The  Hope  of  Social  Re- 
form depends  upon  a  complete  Educational  Revolution. 

THE  discovery  of  America  startled  Europe.  It  was  a 
great  blow  to  prevailing  dogmatisms.  It  upset  many 
learned  (?)  theories.  It  swept  away  patristic  geography. 
It  completed  the  figure  of  the  earth,  rendering  it  sus- 
ceptible of  intelligent  study.  The  advantages  of  such 
investigation  accrued  to  man,  to  a  degree,  before  the  so- 
cial and  civil  life  of  America  began.  In  the  century  and 
a  quarter  which  elapsed  between  the  landing  of  Colum- 
bus and  that  of  the  Pilgrims,  on  these  shores,  considera- 


302  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

ble  social  and  political  progress  was  made  in  Europe, 
and  especially  in  England.  From  the  turbulent  scenes  of 
the  reigns  of  James  I.  and  Charles  I.,  which  eventuated 
in  the  Cromwellian  rebellion  and  victory  of  the  Com- 
mons, the  Pilgrims  escaped.  They  not  only  bore  with 
them,  to  the  new  continent,  the  impress  of  the  long 
struggle  for  liberty  waged  by  the  English  people,  but 
they  were,  in  a  certain  sense,  the  product  of  the  progress 
of  all  the  ages.  But  they  constituted  only  a  small  part 
of  the  column  of  immigrants.  Detachments  of  the  Cav- 
aliers came  also,  and  Germans,  Frenchmen,  and  Irishmen 
came  with  them. 

The  discovery  of  America  was  a  sort  of  new  creation,* 
but  its  almost  virgin  soil  was  destined  to  become  the 
home  of  an  old  civilization.  From  all  the  nationalities  of 
the  Old  World  the  New  World  was  to  be  peopled.  The 
ambitious,  the  restless,  the  adventurous,  the  enterprising, 
and  the  hardy  of  every  tongue,  were  gradually  to  assem- 
ble in  the  new  field  of  action.  The  manner  in  which 
they  treated  the  natives  of  the  new  country,  both  north 
and  south,  showed  their  origin  and  their  training.  Their 
determination  to  conquer  and  hold  the  new  territory  was 
but  thinly  disguised.  Their  descent  upon  the  Atlantic 
coast  was  not  the  exact  counterpart  of  that  of  Caesar  upon 
the  coast  of  Britain,  but  it  was  the  same  in  spirit ;  and 
the  active  trade  in  slaves  which  soon  sprang  up,  and 
which  was  thereafter  vigorously  prosecuted  for  two  hun- 
dred years,  showed  the  taint  of  savagery — the  impress  of 
Roman  cruelty,  rapacity,  and  injustice. 

*  "  The  discovery  of  America  is  the  greatest  event  which  has  ever 
taken  place  in  this  world  of  ours,  one  half  of  which  had  hitherto 
been  unknown  to  the  other.  Ail  that  until  now  appeared  extraordi- 
nary seems  to  disappear  before  this  sort  of  new  creation." — Voltaire. 


EDUCATION  AND  THE   SOCIAL   PROBLEM.  303 

It  is  evident  that  in  its  most  important  feature — the 
formation  of  character — education  had  made  little  if  any 
progress  at  the  time  of  the  organization  of  civil  society 
in  America.  The  democratic  idea  was  not  new.  It  found 
expression  in  every  form  during  the  struggles  of  Greece 
and  Rome,  and  the  revival  of  learning  had  led  to  the 
discussion  of  governmental  questions  in  the  light  of  his- 
tory. Besides,  the  reformation  of  Luther  had  opened 
the  way  to  the  last  analysis  of  dissent  in  the  person  of 
Roger  Williams,  who  asserted  the  right  of  absolute  free- 
dom of  thought  and  speech.  Of  the  religious  right  of 
private  judgment  the  political  right  of  an  equal  voice  in 
public  affairs  is  the  corollary.  Hence,  that  the  Puritans 
should  establish  the  town  organizations  so  justly  lauded 
by  M.  Tocqueville  was  quite  logical.*  Nor  was  the 
public-school  system  less  logical ;  all  citizens  being  mem- 
bers of  the  government,  all  children  must  be  prepared 
for  the  duties  of  citizenship.  But  unfortunately  the  old 
system  of  education  was  put  into  the  new  schools,  as  the 
old  civilizations  had  been  transferred  to  the  new  country. 
The  system  of  education  under  which  the  kings  and  rul- 
ing classes  of  England  and  of  the  continent  of  Europe 
were  trained  to  selfishness,  cruelty,  and  injustice,  was 
heedlessly  adopted  in  the  schools  of  New  England,  which 
became  the  models  of  schools  throughout  the  country. 


*  "Town  meetings  are  to  liberty  "what  primary  schools  are  to 
science;  they  bring  it  within  the  people's  reach,  they  teach  men  how 
to  use  and  how  to  enjoy  it.  ...  The  township  institutions  of  New 
England  form  a  complete  and  regular  whole ;  they  are  old;  they  have 
the  support  of  the  laws,  and  the  still  stronger  support  of  the  manners 
of  the  community,  over  which  they  exercise  a  prodigious  influence." 
— "Democracy  in  America,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  76.  By  Alexis  De  Tocque- 
ville. Boston:  John  Allyn,  1876. 


304  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

The  popular  idea  in  regard  to  the  schools  was  (1)  that 
they  fitted  their  pupils  for  the  duties  of  citizenship,  or, 
more  properly,  for  the  art  of  governing,  and  (2)  that 
they  taught  the  art  of  getting  on  in  the  world ;  and  get- 
ting on  in  the  world  was  interpreted  to  mean  getting  and 
keeping  money.  That  this  sordid  view  of  education  was 
generally  held  in  the  rural  districts  of  New  England  is 
shown  by  the  fact  that  any  culture  beyond  a  limited  and 
imperfect  knowledge  of  reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic 
was  regarded  as  superfluous.  Not  even  the  rudiments  of 
either  the  sciences  or  the  arts  were  imparted,  and  yet  it 
is  only  through  a  knowledge  of  the  sciences  and  the  arts 
that  progress  in  civilization  is  made.  The  early  settlers 
of  New  England  devised  a  new  system  of  schools,  but 
they  imported  into  them  an  old  system  of  education,  the 
Greco-Roman  subjective  system,  introduced  into  Eng- 
land with  the  revival  of  learning.  Of  this  system  Mr. 
Herbert  Spencer  says,  "  Had  there  been  no  teaching  but 
such  as  is  given  in  our  public  schools,  England  would 
now  be  what  it  was  in  feudal  times."  And  he  adds : 

"  The  vital  knowledge,  that  by  which  we  have  grown 
as  a  nation  to  what  we  are,  and  which  now  underlies  our 
whole  existence,  is  a  knowledge  that  has  got  itself  taught  in 
nooks  and  corners,  while  the  ordained  agencies  for  teach- 
ing have  been  mumbling  little  else  but  dead  formulas."* 

But  these  are  merely  negative  effects  of  subjective 
methods  of  education.  The  positive  evil  effect  of  them 

*  "That  which  our  school  courses  leave  almost  entirely  out,  we 
thus  find  to  be  that  which  most  nearly  concerns  the  business  of  life. 
All  our  industries  would  cease  were  it  not  for  that  information  which 
men  begin  to  acquire  as  they  best  may  after  their  education  is  said 
to  be  finished." — "Education,"  p.  54  By  Herbert  Spencer.  New 
York:  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  1883. 


EDUCATION   AND  THE  SOCIAL  PROBLEM.  305 

is  selfishness,  the  sum  of  all  villanies.  Under  the  new 
system  of  schools — schools  for  all — the  old  philosophy  of 
life  flourished.  Under  the  name  of  prudence,  selfishness 
was  deified.  The  maxim  of  Herbert — "  Help  thyself  and 
God  will  help  thee" — was  reproduced  by  Franklin  in  a 
hundred  forms.  The  child  was  taught,  not  that  "The 
half  is  more  than  the  whole,"  but  that  "  In  the  race  of 
life  the  devil  takes  the  hindmost." 

Thus  greed  and  avarice  were  cultivated  to  the  sacri- 
fice of  honesty.  Calling  selfishness  prudence  led  to  con- 
founding right  and  wrong — freedom  and  slavery.  Hence 
we  have  the  Declaration  of  Independence  containing  the 
lofty  sentiment,  "All  men  are  created  equal,"  and  the 
Constitution  throwing  the  shield  of  its  protection  over 
human  bondage.  A  false  system  of  education  led  to 
political  incongruities  of  the  grossest  character,  as,  in  the 
preamble  to  the  Constitution,  the  declaration  of  its  high 
purpose — to  establish  justice  and  secure  the  blessings  of 
liberty — and  in  the  body  of  the  instrument  a  guaranty 
of  the  slave-trade  for  twenty-five  years,  and  a  compact 
that  it  should  be  the  duty  of  the  national  army  to  shoot 
rebellious  slaves,  and  the  duty  of  free  citizens,  of  the  free 
States,  to  hunt  down  escaping  slaves  and  surrender  them 
to  their  owners  in  the  slave  States. 

The  failure  of  the  prevailing  system  of  education  to 
promote  rectitude  and  right  thinking  was  so  complete 
that  negroes  escaping  from  slavery  were  called  "  fugitives 
from  justice !"  Its  failure  was  so  complete  that  the  very 
streets  of  Boston  in  which  patriots  had  struggled  to  the 
death  in  the  cause  of  liberty  now  echoed  the  groans  of 
the  slave,  and  resounded  with  the  clank  of  his  chains. 
Its  failure  was  so  complete  that  in  Faneuil  Hall,  the 
cradle  of  liberty,  slavery  was  justified.  Its  failure  was 


306  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

so  complete  that  a  senator,  for  daring  to  characterize 
slavery  as  barbaric,  was  stricken  down  and  beaten  with  a 
club,  until  he  lay  helpless  in  a  pool  of  blood  on  the  floor 
of  the  legislative  hall  of  the  great,  free  republic. 

These  are  characteristics  of.  the  early  civilizations,  the 
civilizations  of  Greece  and  Rome.  They  are  the  product 
of  selfishness,  and  they  show  that  subjective  educational 
processes — processes  which  proceed  from  the  abstract  to 
the  concrete,  thus  violating  the  natural  law  of  investiga- 
tion— produce  the  same  effects  in  the  nineteenth  century 
as  they  did  in  the  first  century. 

Ethically,  slavery  was  tried  only  by  the  test  of  self- 
interest.  In  the  North,  as  in  Europe,  it  was  not  profit- 
able, and  it  faded  away ;  in  the  South,  in  the  cotton  and 
rice  fields,  it  was  thought  to  be  profitable,  and  it  spread 
and  flourished.  That  the  opposition  to  slavery,  at  the 
North,  did  not  grow  out  of  education  in  the  schools,  is 
evident,  because  the  sons  of  the  Southern  ruling,  class 
were  educated  in  the  high  schools  and  colleges  of  the 
North ;  but  they  became,  notwithstanding  such  training, 
almost  to  a  man,  slavery  propagandists.  The  heinous- 
ness  of  slavery  was  perceptible  only  to  those  who  had  no 
personal  interest  in  its  perpetuation.  It  is  plain  that  the 
effect  of  the  education  of  the  schools  upon  the  youth  of 
the  country  was  to  make  them  callous  to  the  common 
impressions  of  right  and  wrong;  in  a  word,  to  render 
them  thoroughly  selfish. 

It  is  difficult  to  resist  the  conclusion  that,  if  slavery  had 
been  as  profitable  at  the  North  as  it  was  at  the  South,  it 
would  have  been  perpetuated,  and  would  have  poisoned 
the  infant  civilization  of  America  as  that  of  Rome  was 
vitiated  and  destroyed.  Assuming  the  truth  of  this 
hypothesis,  climate  conditions,  not  education,  saved  this 


EDUCATION  AND  THE   SOCIAL  PROBLEM.  307 

continent  from  the  scourge  of  slavery.  To  the  fact  that 
a  large  part  of  the  territory  of  the  United  States  is  situ- 
ated in  the  temperate  zone  we  owe  the  elimination  of 
slavery  from  the  social  problem. 

Existing  social  conditions  in  the  United  States  do  not 
differ  materially  from  those  of  the  chief  countries  of 
Europe.  We  have  only  a  small  standing  army;  but 
the  sole  great  question  which  divided  the  people  during 
the  first  hundred  years  of  our  political  existence  —  sla- 
very— had  to  be  settled  as  such  questions  have  been  set- 
tled from  the  beginning  of  history,  as  savages  settle  all 
questions  —  by  violence,  by  an  appeal  to  the  logic  of 
brute  force. 

Our  government  differs  from  the  governments  of  Eu- 
rope both  in  principle  and  form,  but  the  governmental 
influence  is  only  one  of  many  influences  which  unite  to 
mould  social  habits.  The  democratic  principle,  adopted 
as  the  foundation  of  our  political  institutions,  has  not 
served  to  counteract  the  tendency  to  the  formation  of 
social  class  distinctions.  The  people  lack  the  wisdom,  or 
the  virtue,  or  both,  to  insist  upon  the  first  prerequisite  to 
even  an  approximation  to  social  equality,  namely,  univer- 
sal education.  Of  our  population  of  fifty  millions,  five 
millions  of  persons,  ten  years  old  and  over,  are  unable  to 
read,  and  six  millions  are  unable  to  write.  In  the  last 
census  decade  we  made  the  paltry  gain  of  three  per  cent, 
in  intelligence,  but  in  1880  we  had  six  hundred  thousand 
more  illiterates  than  in  1870.  Nearly  two  millions  of 
the  legal  voters  in  the  United  States  are  illiterates.  Ev- 
ery sixth  man  who  offers  his  ballot  at  the  polls  is  unable 
to  write  his  name.  Under  such  circumstances  class  dis- 
tinctions of  the  most  pronounced  type  are  inevitable. 

The  tendency  to  the  concentration  of  populations  in 


308  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

cities  in  the  United  States  is  not  less  decided  than  it  is 
in  the  countries  of  Europe.  In  1820  the  population  of 
our  cities  constituted  less  than  one  -  twentieth  of  the 
whole  population  of  the  country,  but  in  1880  it  consti- 
tuted more  than  one-fifth  of  the  whole. 

Cities  have  always  been  the  chief  source  of  societary 
disturbances.  In  the  worst  days  of  the  Roman  Empire 
tranquillity  and  prosperity  reigned  in  many  of  the  dis- 
tant provinces.  While  at  the  city  of  Rome  "  every  kind 
of  vice  paraded  itself  with  revolting  cynicism,"  in  the 
provinces  "there  was  a  middle  class  in  which  good-nat- 
ure, conjugal  fidelity,  probity,  and  the  domestic  virtues 
were  generally  practised." 

Of  one  of  the  youngest  large  cities  in  the  United 
States  the  superintendent  of  a  Training  School  for  Waifs 
says,  "  Never  in  the  history  of  this  city  has  infant  wretch- 
edness stalked  forth  in  such  multiplied  and  such  humili- 
ating forms.  It  is  hard  to  suppress  the  conviction  that 
even  Pagan  Rome,  in  the  corrupt  age  of  Augustus,  did 
not  witness  a  more  rapid  and  frightful  declension  in 
morals  than  that  which  can  to-day  be  found  in  the  city 
of  Chicago." 

The  most  graphic  description  ever  given  of  a  waif  came 
from  the  lips  of  John  Morrissey.*  He  said  of  himself, 

"  I  was,  at  the  age  of  seven  years,  thrown  a  waif  upon 
the  streets  of  Dublin.  I  slept  in  alleys  and  under  side- 
walks. I  disputed  with  other  waifs  the  possession  of  a 
crust.  We  fought  like  young  savages  for  the  garbage 
that  fell  from  the  basket  of  the  scullion.  The  strongest 


*  A  noted  pugilist,  proprietor  of  gambling-houses  in  New  York 
City  and  at  Saratoga  Springs,  and  a  politician  who  represented  a 
New  York  City  district  in  Congress. 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  SOCIAL  PROBLEM.  309 

won  and  satisfied  the  cravings  of  hunger;  the  weakest 
starved.  I  had  no  idea  that  anything  was  to  be  gained 
by  other  means  than  brute  force.  Hence  my  code  of 
moral  and  political  ethics — the  strongest  man  is  the  best 
man.  I  became  a  pugilist." 

The  substantial  citizen  who  passes  the  street  waif  with 
contempt  should  reflect  that  ten  or  a  dozen  years  later 
he  will  meet  him,  a  full-grown  man,  at  the  polls,  still 
clothed  in  rags,  perhaps,  but  his  peer  in  all  the  rights  of 
citizenship.  It  was  the  unfortunates  of  the  dark  alleys 
and  noxious  streets  of  New  York — the  waifs,  the  savages 
of  the  John  Morrissey  type — that  made  Tweedism*  pos- 
sible, that  made  robbery  in  the  name  of  law  possible,  that 
made  taxation  the  equivalent  of  confiscation  in  that  city. 

Mr.  Charles  Dickens,  in  "  Bleak  House,"  in  the  course 
of  a  pen-picture  of  a  wretched  quarter  of  London,  under 
the  name  of  "  Tom  -  all  -  alones,"  shows  how  ignorance, 
poverty,  and  vice  react  upon  society.  He  says,  "  There 
is  not  an  atom  of  Tom's  slime,  not  a  cubic  inch  of  any 
pestilential  gas  in  which  he  lives,  not  one  obscenity  or 
degradation  about  him,  not  an  ignorance,  not  a  wicked- 
ness, not  a  brutality  of  his  committing  but  shall  work  its 
retribution  through  every  order  of  society,  up  to  the 
proudest  of  the  proud,  and  to  the  highest  of  the  high." 

The  presence  of  the  poison  is  already  shown  in  the 
failure  of  justice.  These  waifs,  grown  to  man's  estate, 
but  destitute  of  education  and  moral  principle,  wielding 
the  power  of  the  ballot,  desecrate  the  jury -room  with 
their  vile  presence,  and  tug  at  the  skirts  of  sheriffs, 


*  For  an  account  of  the  career  of  "William  Marcy  Tweed, see  "The 
American  Cyclopaedia,"  Vol.  XVI.,  p.  85.  New  York:  D.  Apple- 
ton  &  Co.,  1881. 


810  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

prosecuting  officers,  and  judges,  and  notorious  criminals 
escape  punishment !  So  grievous  has  the  abuse  become 
that  Judge  Lynch  has  opened  his  summary,  awful  court 
in  almost  every  State  of  the  Union. 

To  say  that  this  class  menaces  the  government  with 
destruction  is  to  state  it  mildly.  In  every  case  of  the 
failure  of  justice  the  government  is  in  part  subverted ; 
for  when  crime  goes  unpunished,  the  law,  violated  in 
that  particular  instance,  becomes  a  dead  letter ;  and  when 
lynching  shall  have  become  the  rule,  and  the  execution 
of  the  law  the  exception,  government  by  law  will  have 
ceased  to  exist  —  it  will  have  given  way  to  government 
by  force.  Then  the  army  will  be  invoked  to  shoot  down 
the  men  for  whose  education  the  law  failed  to  provide, 
in  every  city  of  the  land,  as  it  was  invoked  in  Pittsburg 
in  1877. 

"What  are  we  doing  to  avert  this  danger  which  threat- 
ens our  institutions  ?  With  the  exception  of  here  and 
there  a  weak  effort  on  the  part  of  a  few  humanitarians, 
as  in  the  training  school  referred  to,  we  are  leaving  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  waifs  to  develop  into  savages,  and, 
what  is  worse,  savages  with  the  power  to  tax  civilized 
people  !  We  have  a  system  of  public  schools  into  which 
such  children  as  choose  may  enter  to  a  certain  limit,  re- 
main as  long  as  they  please,  and  depart  when  they  please. 
But  there  are  thousands  of  children  in  every  large  city 
who  could  not  enter  if  they  would,  and  who  are  not  com- 
pelled to  receive  the  civilizing  benefits  of  education,  and 
who  hence  join  the  army  of  waifs  and  study  the  art  of 
savagery ;  and,  as  has  been  remarked,  they  go  to  swell 
the  ranks  of  a  populace  as  depraved  as  that  which  in 
Home  cried  for  "  bread  and  circuses !"  and  sacked  the 
citv  while  it  was  in  flames. 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  SOCIAL  PROBLEM.  31 1 

The  defective,  not  to  say  vicious  character  of  our  sys- 
tem of  education,  is  shown  by  the  reckless  course  of  our 
legislators  on  the  subject  of  the  disposition  of  the  public 
domain.  William  the  Conqueror,  conceiving  that  any 
social  revolution  is  incomplete  until  it  disturbs  the  pro- 
prietorship of  land,  confiscated  the  entire  landed  estates 
of  England,  and  conferred  what  remained  of  the  proprie- 
tary, after  reservations  in  the  Crown,  upon  his  retainers, 
the  Normans.  Eight  hundred  years  have  elapsed  since 
the  issue  of  William's  land-tenure  edict,  but  it  still  re- 
mains the  controlling  feature  of  the  British  Constitution. 
It  has  compelled  the  deportation  of  millions  of  English- 
men ;  it  has  reduced  the  masses  of  Scotland  to  a  grind- 
ing poverty,  and  converted  their  country  into  hunting- 
grounds  for  the  amusement  of  the  landlord  class ;  it  has 
depopulated  Ireland,  and  exasperated  almost  to  madness 
the  remnant  of  her  people. 

But  we  have  failed  to  profit  by  the  example  of  Eng- 
land. Our  legislators  have  been  blind  to  the  lessons  of 
history,  or  they  have  been  corrupt.  They  have  been  ig- 
norant of  political  and  social  laws,  or  they  have  been 
wanting  in  rectitude.  In  the  period  of  thirty  years, 
ended  in  1880,  Congress  gave  to  railway  corporations 
over  240,000  square  miles,  or  154,067,553  acres,  of  the 
best  public  lands  in  the  States  and  Territories  of  the 
Union  —  an  area  double  that  of  the  whole  kingdom  of 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  including  the  adjacent  isles. 

On  the  17th  of  March,  1883,  the  Chicago  Daily  Trib- 
^me  published  a  history  of  these  land  grants,  compiled 
by  Mr.  Henry  D.  Lloyd,  under  the  following  summary : 

"  The  story  of  the  dissipation  of  our  great  national 
inheritance  —  thrown  away  by  Congress,  wasted  by  the 
Land  Office,  stolen  ly  thieves.  A  land  monopoly  worse 


312  MANUAL  TKAINING. 

than  that  of  England,  begotten  in  America.  English 
monopoly  is  in  families  ;  American  monopoly  is  in 
corporations ;  and  corporations  are  the  only  aristocrats 
that  have  no  souls,  and  never  die." 

The  following  passages  from  the  opening  paragraphs 
of  Mr.  Lloyd's  history  are  reproduced  here  by  permission 
of  the  author : 

"  The  public  are  profoundly  ignorant  of  the  facts  about 
the  public  land.  They  know,  in  a  dim  way,  that  it  is 
passing  out  of  their  hands,  and  that  huge  monopolies  are 
being  created  out  of  the  lands  which  they  meant  should 
be  the  inheritance  of  the  settler.  The  land  set  apart  for 
homes  for  families  has  been  made  into  empires  for  cor- 
porations. In  the  story  recited  below,  every  element  of 
human  fault  and  fraud  will  be  seen  to  have  been  at  work 
in  the  spoliation  of  the  land  of  the  people.  Congress 
has  been  extravagant  and  has  failed  to  act  when  part 
of  the  results  of  its  extravagance  might  have  been  saved. 
The  Land  Office  has  been  inadequately  equipped  by  Con- 
gress, and  has  on  its  own  account  been  careless,  dishonest, 
and  traitorous  to  the  interests  of  the  people.  It  has  been 
wax  in  the  hands  of  the  great  railroad  corporations,  but 
double-edged  steel  in  the  side  of  the  poor  settler.  It  has 
overruled  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court  and  nullified 
acts  of  Congress  to  betray  its  trust  and  enrich  the  rail- 
roads, but  has  refused  even  to  exercise  its  discretion  when 
the  home  of  a  settler,  held  by  a  righteous  title,  was  to  be 
confiscated  at  the  demand  of  corporate  greed.  The  nig- 
gardliness of  Congress  makes  clerks,  on  salaries  of  twelve 
hundred  to  eighteen  hundred  dollars  a  year,  untrained  in 
the  law,  knowing  nothing  of  the  rules  of  evidence,  judges 
of  the  law  and  facts  in  cases  involving  millions  of  dollars 
and  thousands  of  homes.  There  is  no  worse  chapter  in 


EDUCATION  AND   THE   SOCIAL   PROBLEM.  313 

the  history  of  government  than  the  facts  we  have  to  give 
showing  the  deliberate  and  heartless  evictions  of  the  Eu- 
ropean immigrant  and  the  American  settler  in  order  to 
give  their  farms  to  covetous  corporations.  The  land- 
grant  roads  have  had  millions  of  acres  granted  them  by 
the  Land  Office  in  excess  of  the  grants  by  Congress. 
The  whole  story  is  summed  up  in  the  recent  remark  of 
one  who  had  thoroughly  investigated  the  subject — that 
the  history  of  the  management  of  the  land-grant  roads 
by  the  Land  Office  is  a  history  of  the  management  of  the 
Land  Office  by  the  railroads. 

"  No  chapter  in  this  story  will  be  found  of  more  som- 
bre interest  than  the  statements  made  as  to  the  Supreme 
Court  by  the  Senate  Committee  on  Public  Lands,  in  a  re- 
port submitted  by  Senator  Van  Wyck  recommending  a 
bill  to  compel  the  railroads  to  pay  taxes  on  their  lands. 
Its  decisions  as  to  the  titles  of  the  railroads  and  the  set- 
tlers to  the  lands,  like  those  of  a  weathercock,  have  point- 
ed the  way  the  corporation  blew  its  breath." 

The  summary  of  Mr.  Lloyd's  paper  by  the  editor  of 
the  Tribune,  as  a  preface  to  its  publication,  and  the  fore- 
going characterization  of  the  acts  of  Congress,  of  the 
Land  Office,  and  of  the  Supreme  Court,  by  Mr.  Lloyd, 
are  fully  justified  by  the  alleged  facts  marshalled  in  the 
body  of  the  sketch ;  and  these  allegations,  after  a  year 
and  a  half  of  public  scrutiny,  stand  unchallenged. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  conceive  of  a  more  reckless 
series  of  legislative  acts  than  those  through  which  the 
public  domain  in  the  United  States  has  been  squandered ; 
and  they  are  rendered  either  ignorant  or  vicious  by  the 
fact  that  in  the  vast  empire  surrendered  almost  totally 
without  consideration,  each  legislator,  in  common  with 
the  people  by  and  for  whom  he  was  deputed  to  act,  had 


314  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

a  personal  interest.  Through  this  series  of  acts  of  Con- 
gress the  public  domain  was  rudely  wrested  from  its 
rightful  owners,  the  people;  the  abnormal  growth  of 
corporate  power  unduly  promoted,  and  a  tendency  to 
the  concentration,  in  a  few  hands,  of  the  landed  estates  of 
the  country  fostered. 

The  social  and  economic  effects  of  this  land  legislation 
must  be  very  great  and  far-reaching.  '  Of  the  effects  of 
the  concentration  of  landed  estates  in  a  few  hands  we 
need  not  speak ;  they  are  sufficiently  plain  in  England, 
Scotland,  and  Ireland.*  But  great  corporations  are  a  cre- 
ation of  yesterday ;  they  are  the  product  of  steam.  The 
railway,  the  factory,  the  mine  of  iron  or  coal,  the  fur- 
nace, the  foundery,  and  the  forge — these  vast  interests, 
chartered  and  endowed  with  certain  muniments  of  sov- 
ereignty, are,  as  property,  almost  as  indestructible  as 
landed  estates  protected  by  the  law  of  primogeniture. 
Men  are  trained  from  generation  to  generation  to  the 
care  and  conduct  of  them,  and  hence  they  are  far  less 
liable  to  waste  and  dispersion  than  private  estates,  which, 


*  "The  more  essential  and  important  consideration  is  this — that 
whenever  the  few  rapidly  accumulate  excessive  wealth,  the  many 
must,  necessarily,  become  comparatively  poorer.  ...  In  every  case 
in  which  we  have  traced  out  the  efficient  causes  of  the  present  de- 
pression we  have  found  it  to  originate  in  customs,  laws,  or  modes  of 
action  which  are  ethically  unsound,  if  not  positively  immoral.  Wars 
and  excessive  war  armaments,  loans  to  despots  or  for  war  purposes, 
the  accumulation  of  vast  wealth  by  individuals,  excessive  specula- 
tion, adulteration  of  manufactured  goods,  and,  lastly,  our  bad  land 
system,  with  its  insecurity  of  tenure,  excessive  rents,  confiscation  of 
tenants'  property,  its  common  enclosures,  evictions,  and  depopulation 
of  the  rural  districts — all  come  under  this  category." — "Bad  Times," 
pp.  65, 117.  By  Alfred  Russel  Wallace,  LL.D.  London :  Macmillan 
&  Co.  ,1885.  ' 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  SOCIAL  PEOBLEM.  315 

in  transmission,  may  be  subjected  to  disastrous  changes 
of  management.  Being  also  enterprises  of  a  semi-publk; 
character,  the  public  is  bound,  as  well  as  their  owners,  to 
see  to  their  preservation. 

It  is  to  a  small  number  of  the  greatest  of  these  great 
companies  that  Congress  has  given  an  empire  of  land 
in  the  West — an  area  double  that  owned  by  the  lords 
of  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland.  In  the  railway  pro- 
prietor of  the  United  States  the  two  great  elements  of 
power  are  united — steam  and  land.  It  needs  no  argu- 
ment to  show  that  only  the  nation  can  control  the  pro- 
prietor of  both  the  land  and  the  railway — the  sole  means 
of  reaching  a  market  for  the  products  of  the  land.  The 
appellative — kingship — to  the  railway  proprietor  is  not  a 
misnomer.  He  is  a  real  potentate,  both  by  virtue  of  the 
multitudes  of  men  over  whom  he  rules  autocratically, 
and  of  the  magnitude  of  the  revenue  he  wields.  Presi- 
dents come  and  go,  but  he  remains.  Legislators  investi- 
gate him  and  report  upon  him,  but  they  are  met  by  a 
flat  denial  of  the  authority  of  either  State  or  nation  to  in- 
terfere with  his  "  vested  rights."  He  claims  the  right  of 
himself  and  associates  to  control,  absolutely,  the  internal 
commerce  of  the  country;  and  this  claim  involves  the 
pretence  that  they  may  confiscate  merchandise  seeking  a 
market  by  charging,  for  carriage,  the  full  value  of  the 
thing  transported. 

The  railway  and  the  factory,  the  two  great  products  of 
steam,  are  new  factors  in  the  social  problem,  and  to  prop- 
erly control  them  will  require  new  wisdom ;  and  the  new 
wisdom  is  not  to  be  drawn  from  old  educational  fount- 
ains. 

State  legislation  has  been  as  vicious  as  that  of  the  na- 
tion. The  people  of  nearly  every  State  in  the  Union 

14 


316  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

have  been  made  the  victims  of  great  frauds  and  gross  ig- 
norance at  the  hands  of  their  representatives.  In  nearly 
every  State  syndicates  have  been  formed  with  the  design 
of  securing  valuable  franchises  without  consideration ; 
and  to  effectuate  such  designs  bribery  has  been  freely  and 
successfully  resorted  to  in  a  vast  number  of  cases.  But 
rarely  has  the  guilty  agent  of  the  guilty  syndicate,  or 
the  perjured,  purchased  legislator  been  brought  to  jus- 
tice, notwithstanding  the  fact  that  exposure  has  often 
followed  the  iniquity. 

Evidence  of  the  essentially  European  character  of  the 
American  civilization  is  afforded  by  the  prevalence  of 
speculation.  In  Wall  Street,  New  York,  on  the  Board 
of  Trade,  Chicago,  and  on  the  exchanges  of  all  large  cities 
speculation  rages.  The  real  transactions  of  those  busi- 
ness marts  are  very  small,  indeed,  as  compared  with  the 
transactions  of  a  speculative  character.  On  the  New 
York  Cotton  Exchange  the  speculative  trades  in  "fut- 
ures" are  thirty  times  more  than  the  cotton  sales.  On 
the  Chicago  Board  of  Trade  the  speculative  trades  in 
"  futures  "  are  fifteen  times  more  than  the  sales  of  grain 
and  provisions,  and  so  of  the  exchanges  of  all  other  large 
cities.  To  support  these  speculative  operations  fresh 
money  is  required  to  be  constantly  poured  into  the  pool, 
and  it  is  drawn  from  every  class  in  the  community. 
Very  little  of  the  "  fresh  money  "  is  ever  returned.  Most 
of  it  remains  in  the  hands  of  the  pool  managers,  of  those 
whose  profession  it  is  to  manipulate  the  markets.  Thus 
the  fever  of  speculation  extends  from  centre  to  circum- 
ference of  the  country,  stimulating  bad  passions,  creating 
distaste  for  labor,  relieving  the  countryman  of  his  surplus, 
and  increasing  the  already  overgrown  fortune  of  the  city 
operator.  A  writer  on  current  topics,  discussing  this  sub- 


EDUCATION  AND  THE   SOCIAL   PROBLEM.  317 

ject, says,  "Put  your  finger  on  one  of  our  great  fortunes, 
and  nine  times  out  of  ten  you  will  feel  underneath  it  the 
cold  heart  of  some  one  who  has  mined  on  the  San  Fran- 
cisco Stock  Exchange,  or  packed  pork  on  the  Chicago 
Board  of  Trade,  or  built  railroads  in  Wall  Street."  * 

A  sufficient  number  of  the  salient  features  of  Ameri- 
can civilization  have  been  brought  under  review  to  show 
that  the  new  continent  has  not  borne  new  social  fruits. 
Under  extremely  favorable  physical  conditions — a  coun- 
try of  vast  resources,  a  wide  range  of  climates,  and  a  soil 
of  great  fertility — we  planted  old  social  forces,  and  old 
social  evils  are  in  process  of  rapid  development.  "We  are 
transplanted  Europeans,  controlled  by  European  mental 
and  moral  habitudes.  And  the  virile  force,  evoked  by 
the  splendid  physical  opportunities  of  a  vast  new  coun- 
try, so  intensifies  the  struggle  for  wealth  and  power,  that 
European  social  abuses  are  not  only  reproduced,  but 
sometimes  exaggerated  in  this  land  of  boasted  equal 
political  rights. 

But  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  social  tendencies  in 
America  seem  to  be  similar  to  those  of  Europe,  it  is  upon 
America,  alone  that  the  eyes  of  mankind  rest  with  an  ex- 
pression of  ardent  hopefulness.  Nor  is  this  hope  desti- 
tute of  a  basis  of  rationality.  It  is  in  the  United  States, 
for  the  first  time  in  all  the  ages,  that  a  good  reason  can 
be  given  for  indulging  the  sentiment  of  patriotism.  Love 
of  country  here  is  a  due  appreciation  of  the  value  of  the 
right  of  suffrage.  The  private  soldier  who  goes  forth  to 

*  "America  does  not  now  suffer  from  this  cause  [standing  armies], 
but  nowhere  in  the  world  have  colossal  fortunes,  rabid  speculation, 
and  great  monopolies  reached  so  portentous  a  magnitude,  or  exerted 
so  pernicious  an  influence." — "Bad  Times,"  p.  80.  By  Alfred  Rus- 
sel  Wallace,  LL.D.  London :  Macmillan  &  Co.,  1885. 


318  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

fight  the  battles  of  the  United  States  is  a  man  and  citi- 
zen, and  upon  his  return  from  the  field  he  may,  with  the 
ballot,  devote  to  the  education  of  his  children  a  share  of 
the  estate  of  the  army  contractor  who  amassed  a  fortune 
while  he  defended  the  country.  All  the  property  in  the 
United  States,  whether  honestly  or  dishonestly  acquired, 
is  subject  to  the  order  of  the  ballot  of  the  citizen.  It 
may  be  taken  for  war  purposes,  and  it  may  be  taken  for 
educational  purposes.  In  the  universality  of  the  right 
of  suffrage  lies  the  power  of  correcting  all  social  evils. 
It  is  through  the  right  of  suffrage  that  the  wrongs  inflict- 
ed upon  a  too  patient  people  by  corrupt  and  ignorant 
legislation  may  be  ultimately  righted.  By  the  suffrages 
of  the  people  the  tax  bill  is  voted ;  and  it  is  through  the 
tax  bill  that  the  vast  estates  of  corporations  and  individ- 
uals, whether  obtained  by  dishonest  practices  or  not,  may 
be  made  to  contribute  to  the  thorough  education  of  all 
the  children  of  the  country.  And  it  is  through  the 
sentiment  of  patriotism  thus  inspired  that  the  right  of 
universal  suffrage  in  the  United  States  is  destined  to 
preservation  forever. 

The  late  proposition  to  limit  suffrage  in  the  city  of 
New  York  is  explainable  only  on  the  theory  put  forth 
in  this  chapter,  that  our  civilization  is  the  product  of 
European  ideas — that  we  are  Europeans  in  disguise.  On 
any  other  hypothesis  it  would  be  amazing.  It  is  even 
now  sufficiently  startling  that  the  proposition  to  restrict 
suffrage  should  precede  the  proposition  to  make  educa- 
tion universal  by  making  it  compulsory,  and  to  purge 
it  of  its  glaring  defects.  Every  attempt  to  restrict  the 
right  of  suffrage  in  the  United  States  will,  however,  fail. 
The  right  of  self-government  can  be  taken  from  the 
American  people  only  by  force.  The  American  citizen 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  SOCIAL  PROBLEM.  319 

will  not  vote  away  his  right  to  vote,  as  the  careless  Greek 
sold  his  freedom,  and  as  the  Chinaman  sells  his  life. 

That  American  social  abuses  do  not  spring  from  free 
suffrage  is  evident,  because  similar  abuses  exist  in  coun- 
tries where  the  masses  have  little  or  no  share  in  the 
government.  Social  evils  are  the  product  of  defective 
education.  So  long  as  European  educational  methods 
prevail  in  this  country,  so  long  European  social  abuses 
will  characterize  our  civilization.  Our  education  is  scant 
in  quantity  and  poor  in  quality;  hence  the  standard  of 
the  suffrage  is  lowered  by  the  presence  of  ignorance  and 
depravity.  But  when  the  suffrage  shall  be  better  in- 
formed, it  will  be  more  honest ;  and  when  it  shall  have 
become  more  honest  and  more  intelligent,  it  will  have 
gained  the  power  to  grapple  with  social  abuses. 

Such  examination  of  history  as  we  have  been  able  to 
make  fails  to  disclose  any  radical  change  in  educational 
methods  for  three  thousand  years.  The  charge  of  Mr. 
Herbert  Spencer  against  the  schools  of  England,  to  wit, 
"  That  which  our  school  courses  leave  almost  entirely  out 
we  thus  find  to  be  that  which  most  nearly  concerns  the 
business  of  life"  —  this  charge  applies  with  almost  as 
much  force  to  the  schools  of  the  United  States  as  to  the 
Greek  and  Roman  schools  of  rhetoric  and  logic.  Ba- 
con's aphorism — "  Education  is  the  cultivation  of  a  just 
and  legitimate  familiarity  betwixt  the  mind  and  things  " 
— is  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  old,  but  it  has  as  yet 
exerted  scarcely  an  appreciable  influence  upon  the  meth- 
ods of  our  public  schools.  We  still  reverse  the  natural 
order  of  investigation  proceeding  from  the  abstract  to  the 
concrete,  thus  lumbering  the  mind  of  the  student  with 
trash  which  must  be  removed  as  a  preliminary  to  the 
first  step  in  the  real  work  of  education.  We  still  impart 


820  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

a  knowledge  of  words  instead  of  a  knowledge  of  things ; 
we  still  ignore  art,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  it  is 
through  art  alone  that  education  touches  human  life. 
We  still  inculcate  contempt  of  labor,  and  teach  the  stu- 
dent how  to  "  make  his  way  in  the  world  "  by  his  wits, 
rather  than  by  giving  an  equivalent  for  what  he  shall 
receive ;  and,  worst  of  all,  we  continue,  through  subjec- 
tive processes  of  thought,  to  charge  the  mind  with  self- 
ishness, the  essence  of  depravity. 

Meantime,  social  problems  press  for  a  solution,  a  solu- 
tion here  and  now.  Our  social  problems  cannot  be  set- 
tled as  those  of  Europe  have  been,  for  two  hundred 
years,  by  emigration.  "We  have  no  Columbus,  and  if  we 
had  such  an  explorer,  there  is  no  new  hemisphere  for 
him  to  discover.  The  lesson  of  all  history  is,  that  selfish 
people  cannot  dwell  together  in  unity.  The  struggle  to 
secure  more  than  a  fair  share  of  the  products  of  the  labor 
of  all  is  sure  to  end  in  a  quarrel ;  the  quarrel  ends  in  a 
revolution,  and  the  revolution,  under  the  glare  of  flames, 
drowns  in  blood  the  records  of  civilization.  But  in  Amer- 
ica the  man  must  live  with  his  fellows.  As  Mr.  Henry 
D.  Lloyd  well  says,  in  "  Lords  of  Industry,"  "  Our  young 
men  can  no  longer  go  West ;  they  must  go  up  or  down. 
Not  new  land,  but  new  virtue  must  be  the  outlet  for  the 
future.  Our  halt  at  the  shores  of  the  Pacific  is  a  much 
more  serious  affair  than  that  which  brought  our  ancestors 
to  a  pause  before  the  barriers  of  the  Atlantic,  and  com- 
pelled them  to  practise  living  together  for  a  few  hundred 
years.  We  cannot  hereafter,  as  in  the  past,  recover  free- 
dom by  going  to  the  prairies;  we  must  find  it  in  the 
society  of  the  good."  * 

*  North  American  Review,  June,  1884,  p.  552. 


EDUCATION  AND  THE   SOCIAL  PROBLEM.  331 

If  we  are  to  find  freedom  only  in  the  society  of  the 
good,  we  must  create  such  a  society — a  society  free  from 
selfishness ;  for  to  the  stability  of  society  public  spirit  is 
essential,  and  with  a  pure  public  spirit  selfishness  is  at 
war.  Hence,  in  a  system  of  education  like  the  prevail- 
ing one,  which  promotes  selfishness,  the  germs  of  social 
disintegration  are  present,  and,  from  the  beginning,  the 
end  may  with  absolute  certainty  be  predicted.  It  fol- 
lows that  any  hope  of  social  reform  is  wholly  irrational 
that  does  not  spring  from  the  postulate  of  a  complete 
educational  revolution. 


MANUAL  TRAINING. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 
HISTORY  OF  THE  MANUAL  ELEMENT  IN  EDUCATION. 

The  Kindergarten  and  the  Manual  Training  School  one  in  Principle. 
—Russia  solved  the  Problem  of  Tool  Instruction  by  Laboratory 
Processes. — The  Initiatory  Step  by  M.  Victor  Delia- Vos,  Director 
of  the  Imperial  Technical  School  of  Moscow  in  1868. — Statement 
of  Director  Delia- Vos  as  to  the  Origin,  Progress,  and  Results  of  the 
New  System  of  Training. — Its  Introduction  into  all  the  Technical 
Schools  of  Russia.— Dr.  John  D.  Runkle,  President  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Institute  of  Technology,  recommends  the  Russian  System 
in  1876,  and  it  is  adopted.  —  Statement  of  Dr.  Runkle  as  to  how 
he  was  led  to  the  adoption  of  the  Russian  System. — Dr.  Woodward, 
of  Washington  University,  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  establishes  the  second 
School  in  this  Country. — His  Historical  Note  in  the  Prospectus  of 
1882-83.— First  Class  graduated  1883.— Manual  Training  in  the 
Agricultural  Colleges— In  Boston,  in  New  Haven,  in  Baltimore,  in 
San  Francisco,  and  other  places. — Manual  Training  at  the  Meeting 
of  the  National  Educational  Association,  1884. — Kindergarten  and 
Manual  Training  Exhibits.  —  Prof.  Felix  Adler's  School  in  New 
York  City — the  most  Comprehensive  School  in  the  World. — The 
Chicago  Manual  Training  School  the  first  Independent  Institution 
of  the  Kind — its  Inception;  its  Incorporation;  its  Opening.  Its 
Director,  Dr.  Belfield.— His  Inaugural  Address. — Manual  Training 
in  the  Public  Schools  of  Philadelphia. — Manual  Training  in  twen- 
ty-four States.— Revolutionizing  a  Texas  College. — Local  Option 
Law  in  Massachusetts. — Department  of  T)omestic  Economy  in  the 
Iowa  Agricultural  College. — Manual  Training  in  Tennessee,  in  the 
University  of  Michigan,  in  the  National  Educational  Association, 
in  Ohio. — The  Toledo  School  for  both  Sexes. — The  Importance  of 
the  Education  of  Woman. — The  Slojd  Schools  of  Europe. 

THE  principle  of  the  manual  training  school  exists  in 
the  kindergarten,  and  for  that  principle  we  are  indebted 
directly  to  Froebel,  and  indirectly  to  Pestalozzi,  Come- 


M.  VICTOR  BELLA -VOS,  THE   FOUNDER  OP  MANUAL  TRAINING   IN 
RUSSIA. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  MANUAL  ELEMENT  IN  EDUCATION.    335 

nius,  Rousseau,  and  Bacon.  But  it  was  reserved  for 
Russia  to  solve  the  problem  of  tool  instruction  by  the 
laboratory  process,  and  make  it  the  foundation  of  a  great 
reform  in  education.  The  initiatory  step  was  taken  in 
1868  by  M.  Victor  Delia- Yos,  Director  of  the  Imperial 
Technical  School  of  Moscow.  The  following  statement 
is  extracted  from  the  account  given  by  Director  Della- 
Yos  of  the  exhibit  of  the  Moscow  school  at  Philadelphia 
(Centennial  of  1876),  and  at  the  Paris  Exposition  in  1878, 
as  best  showing  the  inception  of  the  new  education : 

"  In  1868  the  school  council  considered  it  indispensa- 
ble, in  order  to  secure  the  systematical  teaching  of  ele- 
mentary practical  work,  as  well  as  for  the  more  conven- 
ient supervision  of  the  pupils  while  practically  employed, 
to  separate  entirely  the  school  workshops  from  the  me- 
chanical works  in  which  the  orders  from  private  indi- 
viduals are  executed,  admitting  pupils  to  the  latter  only 
when  they  have  perfectly  acquired  the  principles  of  prac- 
tical labor. 

"  By  the  separation  alone  of  the  school  workshops  from 
the  mechanical  works,  the  principal  aim  was,  however, 
far  from  being  attained.  It  was  found  necessary  to 
work  out  such  a  method  of  teaching  the  elementary 
principles  of  mechanical  art  as,  firstly,  should  demand 
the  least  possible  length  of  time  for  their  acquirement ; 
secondly,  should  increase  the  facility  of  the  supervis- 
ion of  the  graded  employment  of  the  pupils;  thirdly, 
should  impart  to  the  study  of  practical  work  the  charac- 
ter of  a  sound  systematical  acquirement  of  knowledge ; 
and  fourthly  and  lastly,  should  facilitate  the  demon- 
stration of  the  progress  of  every  pupil  at  every  stated 
time.  Everybody  is  well  aware  that  the  successful  study 
of  any  art  whatsoever,  free-hand  or  linear  drawing,  mu- 

14* 


326  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

sic,  singing,  painting,  etc.,  is  only  attainable  when  the 
first  attempts  at  any  of  them  are  strictly  subject  to  the 
laws  of  gradation  and  successiveness,  when  every  student 
adheres  to  a  definite  method  or  school,  surmounting  little 
by  little,  and  by  certain  degrees,  the  difficulties  encoun- 
tered. 

"All  those  arts  which  we  have  just  named  possess-^, 
method  of  study  which  has  been  well  worked  out  and 
defined,  because,  since  they  have  long  constituted  a^jpart 
of  the  education  of  the  well-instructed  classes  of  people, 
they  could  not  but  become  subject  tojscientific  analysis, 
could  not  but  become  the  objects  of  investigation,  with  a 
view  of  defining  those  conditions  which  might  render  the 
study  of  them  as  easy  and  well  regulated  as  possible. 

"If  we  except  the  attempts  made  in  France  in  the  year 
1867  by  the  celebrated  and  learned  mechanical  engineer, 
A.  Cler,  to  form  a  collection  of  models  for  the  practical 
study  of  the  principal  methods  of  forging  and  welding 
iron  and  steel,  as  well  as  the  chief  parts  of  joiners'  work, 
and  this  with  a  purely  demonstrative  aim,  no  one,  as  far 
as  we  are  aware,  has  hitherto  been  actively  engaged  in 
the  working  out  of  this  question  in  its  application  to  the 
study  of  hand  labor  in  workshops.  To  the  Imperial 
Technical  School  belongs  the  initiative  in  the  introduc- 
tion of  a  systematical  method  of  teaching  the  arts  of 
turning,  carpentering,  fitting,  and  forging. 

"  To  the  knowledge  and  experience  in  these  specialties, 
of  the  gentlemen  intrusted  with  the  management  of  the 
school  workshops,  and  to  their  warm  sympathy  in  the 
matter  of  practical  education,  we  are  indebted  for  the 
drawing  up  of  the  programme  of  systematical  instruction 
in  the  mechanical  arts,  its  introduction  in  the  year  1868 
into  the  workshops,  and  also  for  the  preparation  of  the 


HISTORY  OF  THE  MANUAL  ELEMENT  IN  EDUCATION.    327 

necessary  auxiliaries  to  study.  In  the  year  1870,  at  the 
exhibition  of  manufactures  at  St.  Petersburg,  the  school 
exhibited  its  methods  of  teaching  mechanical  arts,  and 
from  that  time  they  have  been  common  to  all  the  tech- 
nical schools  of  Russia. 

"  And  now  (1878)  we  present  our  system  of  instruc- 
tion, not  as  a  project,  but  as  an  accomplished  fact,  con- 
firmed by  the  long  experience  of  ten  years  of  success  in 
its  results." 

For  the  introduction  of  the  manual  element  in  educa- 
tion to  the  United  States  we  are  indebted  to  the  intel- 
lectual acumen  of  Dr.  John  D.  Runkle,  Ph.D.,  LL.D., 
Walker  Professor  of  Mathematics,  Institute  of  Technol- 
ogy, Boston,  Mass.  In  1876  Doctor  Runkle  was  Presi- 
dent of  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology.  In 
his  official  report  for  that  year  he  gave  an  exhaustive  ex- 
position of  the  Russian  system,  in  the  course  of  which  he 
said, 

"  We  went  to  Philadelphia,  therefore,  earnestly  seeking 
for  light  in  this  as  well  as  in  all  other  directions,  and  this 
special  report  is  now  made  to  ask  your  attention  to  a  fun- 
damental, and,  as  I  think,  complete  solution  of  this  most 
important  problem  of  practical  mechanism  for  engineers. 
The  question  is  simply  this,  Can  a  system  of  shop-work 
instruction  be  devised  of  sufficient  range  and  quality 
which  will  not  consume  more  time  than  ought  to  be 
spared  from  the  indispensable  studies  ? 

"  This  question  has  been  answered  triumphantly  in  the 
affirmative,  and  the  answer  comes  from  Russia.  It  gives 
me  the  greatest  pleasure  to  call  your  attention  to  the  ex- 
hibit made  by  the  Imperial  Technical  Schools  of  St. 
Petersburg  and  Moscow,  consisting  entirely  of  collections 
of  tools  and  samples  of  shop-work  by  students,  illustrat- 


828  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

ing  the  system  which  has  made  these  magnificent  results 
possible." 

In  conclusion  Doctor  Runkle  made  the  following  ear- 
nest recommendation : 

"  In  the  light  of  the  experience  which  Russia  brings  us, 
not  only  in  the  form  of  a  proposed  system,  but  proved 
by  several  years  of  experience  in  more  than  a  single 
school,  it  seems  to  me  that  the  duty  of  the  Institute  is 
plain.  "We  should,  without  delay,  complete  our  course  in 
Mechanical  Engineering  by  adding  a  series  of  instruction 
shops,  which  I  earnestly  recommend." 

In  accordance  with  this  recommendation  the  "new 
school  of  Mechanic  Arts  "  was  created,  and  made  part  of 
the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology. 

In  his  report  for  1877  Doctor  Runkle  said, 

"The  plan  announced  in  my  last  report,  of  building 
a  series  of  shops  [laboratories]  in  which  to  teach  the 
students  in  the  department  of  Mechanical  Engineering 
and  others  the  use  of  tools,  and  the  fundamental  steps  in 
the  art  of  construction,  in  accordance  with  the  Russian 
system,  as  exhibited  at  Philadelphia  in  1876,  has  been 
carried  steadily  forward,  and  I  have  now  the  pleasure  of 
announcing  its  near  completion.'' 

Reference  is  also  made  in  the  same  report  to  the  action 
of  the  trustees  of  the  Institute  in  acknowledging  the  re- 
ception of  certain  models  illustrating  the  system  of  Me- 
chanic Art  education,  presented  by  the  government  of 
Russia,  as  follows : 

"At  a  meeting  of  the  Corporation  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Institute  of  Technology,  held  November  20, 1877, 
a  communication  from  his  Excellency,  Hon.  George  H. 
Boker,  American  Minister  at  St.  Petersburg,  was  read, 
announcing  the  gift  to  this  Institute  of  eight  cases  of 


DR.  JOHN  D.  RUNKLE,  THE   FOUNDER   OP  MANUAL,   TRAINING  IN  THE 
UNITED   STATES. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  MANUAL  ELEMENT  IN  EDUCATION.    331 

models,  illustrating  the  system  of  Mechanic  Art  educa- 
tion, as  devised  and  so  successfully  applied  at  the  Impe- 
rial Technical  School  of  Moscow.  The  undersigned  have 
been  charged  with  the  agreeable  duty  of  transmitting  to 
his  Imperial  Highness  the  following  resolutions : 

"jftesolved,  That  the  Corporation  of  the  Massachusetts 
Institute  of  Technology  takes  this  opportunity  to  cor- 
dially congratulate  his  Imperial  Highness,  Prince  Pierre 
d'Oldenbourg,  that,  at  the  Imperial  Technical  School  of 
Moscow,  education  in  the  Mechanic  Arts  has  been  for 
the  first  time  based  upon  philosophical  and  purely  edu- 
cational grounds,  fully  justifying  for  it  the  title  of  the 
'  Russian  system.' 

"JResolved,  That  this  Corporation  hereby  tenders  its 
grateful  thanks  to  his  Imperial  Highness  for  his  most 
valuable  gift,  with  the  assurance  that  these  models  will 
be  of  the  greatest  aid  in  promoting  Mechanic  Art  educa- 
tion not  only  in  the  School  of  this  Institute,  but  in  all 
similar  schools  throughout  the  United  States." 

Appreciating  the  value  of  the  services  rendered  to  the 
cause  of  the  new  education  by  Dr.  Runkle,  in  introduc- 
ing to  the  schools  of  the  United  States  tool  practice  by 
laboratory  methods,  and  desiring  to  inform  the  public  of 
the  course  of  thought  which  led  to  results  so  important, 
the  author  addressed  him  on  the  subject.  His  reply, 
under  date  of  May  22,  1884,  is  in  substance  as  follows : 

"  From  the  first  the  course  in  Mechanical  Engineering 
has  been  an  important  one  in  the  Institute  of  Technology. 
A  few  students  came  with  a  knowledge  of  shop-work, 
and  had  a  clear  field  open  to  them  on  graduation,  but  the 
larger  number  found  it  difficult  to  enter  lapen.  their  pro- 
fessional work  without  first  taking  one  or  two  ;vears  of 
apprenticeship.  This  always  seemed  to  me  a  fault  in  the 


332  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

education,  and  yet  I  did  not  see  the  way  to  remedy  it 
without  building  up  manufacturing  works  in  connection 
with  the  school — a  step  which  I  knew  to  be  an  inversion 
of  a  true  educational  method. 

"At  Philadelphia,  in  1876,  almost  the  first  thing  I  saw 
was  a  small  case  containing  three  series  of  models — one 
of  chipping  and  filing,  one  of  forging,  and  one  of  ma- 
chine-tool work.  I  saw  at  once  that  they  were  not  parts 
of  machines,  but  simply  graded  models  for  teaching  the 
manipulations  in  those  arts.  In  an  instant  the  problem 
I  had  been  seeking  to  solve  was  clear  to  my  mind ;  a 
plain  distinction  between  a  Mechanic  Art  and  its  appli- 
cation in  some  special  trade  became  apparent. 

"  My  first  work  was  to  build  up  at  the  Institute  a  series 
of  Mechanic  Art  shops,  or  laboratories,  to  teach  these 
arts,  just  as  we  teach  chemistry  and  physics  by  the  same 
means.  At  the  same  time  I  believed  that  this  discipline 
could  be  made  a  part  of  general  education,  just  as  we 
make  the  sciences  available  for  the  same  end  through 
laboratory  instruction. 

"  All  teaching  has  in  an  important  sense  a  double  pur- 
pose :  first,  the  cultivation  of  the  powers  of  the  individ- 
ual, and  second,  the  pursuit  of  similar  subjects,  by  sub- 
stantially the  same  means,  as  a  professional  end.  Now 
we  use  our  shops  [laboratories]  both  for  educational  and 
professional  ends.  ...  In  brief,  we  teach  the  mechanic 
arts  by  laboratory  methods,  and  the  student  applies  the 
special  skill  and  knowledge  acquired,  or  not,  as  circum- 
stances or  his  inclinations  dictate." 

The  second  manual  training  school  in  this  country  was 
founded  as  a  department  of  Washington  University,  St. 
Louis,  Mo.,  by  Dr.  C.  M.  Woodward.  In  a  paper  read 
before  the  St.  Louis  Social  Science  Association,  May  16, 


HISTORY  OF  THE  MANUAL  ELEMENT  IN  EDUCATION.    333 

1878,  Dr.  Woodward  discussed  the  subject  of  education 
both  philosophically  and  practically.  In  the  course  of 
his  address  he  gave  a  full  account  of  the  Russian  system 
of  manual  training  as  expounded  by  Dr.  Runkle,  en- 
dorsed it,  and  recommended  it  to  the  people  of  St.  Louis 
as  the  true  method  of  education  in  the  following  y»Qg 
-nigt  sentence :  "  The  manual  education  which  begins  in 
the  kindergarten,  before  the  children  are  able  to  read  a 
word,  should  never  cease."  * 

In  the  same  paper  Dr.  Woodward  thus  modestly  de- 
scribes the  beginning  of  the  school  which  is  now  one  of 
the  most  highly-esteemed  educational  institutions?  of  St. 
Louis:  ^X^  Gid<7>u^->^>  J 

/^Witk-the-  aid  of  our  stanch  friend,  Mr.  Gottlieb 
-Conzelman,  we  fitted  up  during  last  summer -«*  wood- 
working shop,  with  work-benches  and  vises  for  eighteen 
students ;  a  second  shop  for  vise-work  upon  metals  and 
for  machine -work;  and  a  third  with  a  single  outfit  of 
blacksmith's  tools.  During  the  last  few  months  system- 
atic instruction  has  been  given  to  different  classes  in  all 
these  shops.  Special  attention  has  been  paid  to  the  use 
of  wood  -  working  hand  -  tools,  to  wood  -  turning,  and  to 

filing."    . 

~ 

These  tentative  steps  promoted  a  healthy  public  senti- 
ment, and  attracted  the  attention  of  several  wealthy  men, 
who  in  1879  contributed  the  funds  for  the  permanent 
foundation  of  the  school.  The  prospectus  for  the  year 

*  The  pressing  problem  of  the  time  in  methods  of  practical  educa- 
tion is  to  devise  suitable  manual  exercises  for  the  school  period  em- 
braced in  the  interim  between  the  end  of  the  kindergarten  series  of 
lessons  and  the  beginning  of  the  series  of  laboratory  exercises  de- 
scribed in  this  work  —  the  grammar-school  period  —  for  children  of 
both  sexes  from  six  to  fourteen  years  of  age. 


334  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

1882-83  contains  the  following  "  historical  note,"  which 
shows  great  progress : 

"The  ordinance  establishing  the  Manual  Training 
School  was  adopted  by  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the 
University,  June  6,  1879. 

"The  lot  was  purchased  and  the  building  begun  in 
August  of  the  same  year.  In  the  November  following  a 
prospectus  of  the  school  was  published.  In  June,  1880, 
the  building  being  partially  equipped,  was  opened  for 
public  inspection,  and  a  class  of  boys  was  examined  for 
admission.  On  September  6,  1880,  the  school  began 
with  a  single  class  of  about  fifty  pupils.  The  whole 
number  enrolled  during  the  year  was  sixty -seven.  A 
public  exhibition  of  drawing  and  shop-work  was  given 
June  16,  1881. 

"  The  second  year  of  the  school  opened  September  12, 
1881,  and  closed  June  14, 1882.  There  were  two  classes, 
sixty-one  pupils  belonging  to  the  first  year,  and  forty-six 
to  the  second  year,  making  one  hundred  and  seven  in  all. 
Of  the  second -year  class,  forty -two  had  attended  the 
school  the  previous  year. 

"  The  third  year  of  the  school  will  open  on  September 
llth,  when  three  classes  will  be  present. 

"  The  large  addition  now  in  progress  (June,  1882)  is  to 
be  completed  and  furnished  by  the  day  set  for  the  exam- 
ination of  candidates  for  admission,  September  8th.  The 
number  of  pupils  in  the  new  first-year  class  is  to  be  lim- 
ited to  one  hundred.  Nearly  one-half  of  that  number 
have  already  been  received." 

The  capacity  of  the  school  since  the  completion  of  the 
"addition"  alluded  to  in  the  "historical  note"  is  two 
hundred  and  forty  students.  The  first  class  was  gradu- 
ated in  June,  1883 ;  the  second  class  in  June,  1884.  The 


HISTORY  OF  THE  MANUAL  ELEMENT  IN  EDUCATION.    335 

establishment  of  this  excellent  school  is  due  first  to  the 
energy  and  educational  foresight  of  Dr.  Woodward,  and 
second,  to  the  munificent  money  donations  of  three  citi- 
zens of  St.  Louis — Mr.  Edwin  Harrison,  Mr.  Samuel  Cup- 
pies,  and  Mr.  Gottlieb  Conzelman.  Other  citizens  em- 
ulated their  noble  example,  and  the  result  was  a  sufficient 
fund  for  the  support  of  the  school,  whose  purpose  is  to 
demonstrate  the  practicability  of  uniting  manual  and 
mental  instruction  in  the  public  schools  of  St.  Louis  and 
of  the  country.  With  a  single  further  quotation  from 
the  prospectus  of  the  second  great  manual  training 
school  in  the  United  States,  on  the  subject  of  labor,  we 
close  this  too  brief  notice  : 

"One  great  object  of  the  school  is  to  foster  a  higher 
appreciation  of  the  value  and  dignity  of  intelligent  labor, 
and  the  worth  and  respectability  of  laboring  men.  A  boy 
who  sees  nothing  in  manual  labor  but  mere  brute  force 
despises  both  labor  and  the  laborer.  With  the  acquisi- 
tion of  skill  in  himself  comes  the  ability  and  willingness 
to  recognize  skill  in  his  fellows.  When  once  he  appre- 
ciates skill  in  handicraft,  he  regards  the  workman  with 
sympathy  and  respect." 

Considerable  progress  in  manual  training  has  been 
made  in  the  State  agricultural  colleges  of  the  country. 
In  twelve  of  these  colleges  drawing  and  tool  practice 
have  been  introduced.  Generally  the  tool  practice  covers 
pattern-making,  blacksmithing,  moulding  and  founding, 
forging  and  bench-work,  and  machine-tool  work  in  iron. 
The  most  pronounced  success  has  been  achieved  at  Pur- 
due University,  Lafayette,  Ind.,  under  the  directorship 
of  Prof.  Wm.  F.  M.  Goss,  who  graduated  from  the  school 
of  Mechanic  Arts  of  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Tech- 
nology in  1879. 


336  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

Manual  training  in  connection  with  the  public-school 
system  of  education  has  been  inaugurated  in  Boston 
and  Milford,  Mass. ;  New  Haven,  and  the  State  Normal 
School,  New  Britain,  Conn. ;  Omaha,  Neb. ;  *  Eau  Claire, 
Wis. ;  f  Moline,  Peru,  and  the  Cook  County  Normal 
School,  Normal  Park,  111. ;  Montclair,  N.  J. ;  Cleveland 
and  Barnesville,  Ohio ;  San  Francisco,  Cal. ;  and  Balti- 
more, Md. 

On  the  occasion  of  the  annual  meeting  of  1884  of  the 
National  Educational  Association  of  the  United  States, 
at  Madison,  Wis.,  manual  training  received  a  very  large 
share  of  the  attention  of  educators.  Yery  creditable  ex- 
hibits of  various  manipulations  in  wood,  iron,  and  steel 
were  made  by  the  following  institutions,  namely,  the 
Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology,  Purdue  Univer- 
sity, the  St.  Louis  Manual  Training  School,  the  Illinois 
Industrial  University,  the  University  of  Wisconsin,  and 
the  Spring  Garden  Institute  of  Philadelphia.  There 
were  also  about  thirty  kindergarten  exhibits,  and  a  large 
number  of  exhibits  of  specimens  of  drawing  from  public 
schools  in  various  parts  of  the  country. 

Prof.  Felix  Adler's  educational  enterprise  in  the  city 
of  New  York — The  Workingman's  School  and  Free  Kin- 
dergarten —  is  unique  in  this  that,  while  it  is  entirely  a 
work  of  charity,  it  is  the  most  comprehensive  education- 
al institution  in  existence,  as  appears  from  the  following 
description  of  its  course  of  instruction : 

"The  Workingman's  School  and  Free  Kindergarten 
form  one  institution.  The  children  are  admitted  at  the 

*  In  charge  of  Albert  M.  Bumann,  B.S.,  graduate  of  the  St.  Louis 
Manual  Training  School,  class  of  1885. 

t  In  charge  of  William  F.  Barnes,  B.S.,  graduate  of  the  St.  Louis 
Manual  Training  School,  class  of  1885. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  MANUAL  ELEMENT  IN  EDUCATION.    337 

age  of  three  to  the  kindergarten.  They  are  graduated 
from  it  at  six,  and  enter  the  workingman's  school.  They 
remain  in  the  school  till  they  are  thirteen  or  fourteen 
years  of  age.  Thereafter  those  who  show  decided  ability 
receive  higher  technical  instruction.  For  the  others  who 
leave  the  school  proper  and  are  sent  to  work,  a  series  of 
evening  classes  will  be  opened,  in  which  their  industrial 
and  general  education  will  be  continued  in  various  direc- 
tions. This  graduate  course  of  the  workingman's  school 
is  intended  to  extend  up  to  the  eighteenth  or  twenty-first 
year. 

"  From  the  third  year  up  to  manhood  and  womanhood 
— such,"  says  Prof.  Adler,  "  is  the  scope  embraced  by  the 
purposes  of  our  institiition  !" 

The  following  extracts  from  a  late  report  of  the  prin- 
cipal of  the  school,  Mr.  G.  Bamberger,  on  its  "  purposes," 
show  that  they  are  identical  with  those  of  the  so-called 
manual  training  school,  and  also  that  its  methods  are  sim- 
ilar: 

"  We,  therefore,  have  undertaken  to  institute  a  reform 
in  education  in  the  following  two  ways:  "We  begin 
industrial  instruction  at  the  very  earliest  age  possible. 
Already  in  our  kindergarten  we  lay  the  foundation  for 
the  system  of  work  instruction  that  is  to  follow.  In  the 
school  proper,  then,  we  seek  to  bridge  over  the  interval 
lying  between  the  preparatory  kindergarten  training  and 
the  specialized  instruction  of  the  technical  school,  util- 
izing the  school  age  itself  for  the  development  of  indus- 
trial ability.  This,  however,  is  only  one  characteristic 
feature  of  our -institution.  The  other,  and  the  capital 
one,  is,  that  we  seek  to  combine  industrial  instruction 
organically  with  the  ordinary  branches  of  instruction, 
thus  using  it  not  only  for  the  material  purpose  of  creat- 


338  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

ing  skill,  but  also  ideally  as  a  factor  of  mind-education. 
To  our  knowledge,  such  an  application  of  work  instruc- 
tion has  nowhere  as  yet  been  attempted,  either  abroad  or 
in  this  country.  .  .  . 

"  In  the  teaching  of  history  to  these  young  children 
we  hold  it  essential  that  the  teacher  should  be  entirely 
independent  of  any  text-book,  and  able  to  freely  handle 
the  vast  material  at  his  disposal,  and  to  draw  from  it,  as 
from  an  endless  storehouse,  with  fixed  and  definite  pur- 
pose. We  attach  even  greater  importance  to  the  moral 
than  to  the  intellectual  significance  of  history.  The  ben- 
efits which  the  understanding,  the  memory,  and  the  im- 
agination derive  from  the  study  of  history  are  not  small. 
But  history,  considered  as  a  realm  of  actions,  can  be  made 
especially  fruitful  of  sound  influence  upon  the  active, 
moral  side  of  human  nature.  The  moral  judgment  is 
strengthened  by  a  knowledge  of  the  evolution  of  man- 
kind in  good  and  evil.  The  moral  feelings  are  purified 
by  abhorrence  of  the  vices  of  the  past,  and  by  admira- 
tion of  examples  of  greatness  and  virtue.  Text -books 
are  not  to  be  discarded,  but  their  choice  is  a  matter 
of  great  difficulty.  Thus,  all  books  in  which  historical 
instruction  is  given  in  the  shape  of  printed  questions  and 
answers  are  highly  objectionable.  They  are  convenient 
bridges  which  lead  to  nothing." 

The  following  extract  from  a  late  report  of  Prof.  Ad- 
ler  shows  the  purpose  of  the  establishment  of  what  he 
calls  the  "model  school"  to  be  identical  with  that  of  the 
projectors  of  the  St.  Louis  and  Chicago  manual  training 
schools,  namely,  the  ultimate  adoption  by  the  public 
schools  of  the  country  of  a  far  more  rational  system  of 
instruction  than  that  which  at  present  prevails.  He  says, 

"It  seemed  to  us,  therefore,  far  more  necessary,  far 


HISTORY  OF  THE  MANUAL  ELEMENT  IN  EDUCATION.    339 

more  calculated  to  really  advance  the  public  good,  that 
one  model  school  should  be  erected  in  which  the  entire 
system  of  rational  and  liberal  education  for  the  children 
of  the  poorer  class  might  be  exhibited  from  beginning  to 
end.  We  ventured  to  hope  that  such  an  example,  hav- 
ing once  been  set,  would  not  be  without  effect  upon  the 
common-school  system  at  large,  and  that  the  extension 
of  our  work  would  proceed  by  the  natural  course  of  the 
'  survival  of  what  is  fittest.'  It  was  decided,  therefore, 
that  the  twenty -five  graduates  from  the  kindergarten 
should  be  invited  to  remain  with  us,  that  a  complete 
school  should  be  instituted,  and  that  a  teacher  should  be 
at  once  appointed  to  take  in  hand  the  instruction  of  the 
lowest  class.  The  munificence  of  Mr.  Joseph  Seligmau, 
to  whose  name  we  cannot  refer  without  gratitude  and  re- 
spect, at  this  stage  enabled  us  to  go  on  with  our  under- 
taking, when  the  dearth  of  funds  would  otherwise  have 
compelled  us  to  wait,  or  perhaps  desist  altogether.  His 
timely  gift  of  ten  thousand  dollars  was  the  means  of 
starting  the  school,  and  on  this  as  well  as  on  other  ac- 
counts his  memory  deserves  to  be  cherished  by  those 
who  cherish  the  educational  interests  of  the  people." 

The  Chicago  Manual  Training  School  is  the  only  in- 
dependent educational  institution  of  the  kind  in  the 
world.  All  the  schools  of  this  character  to  which  refer- 
ence has  been  made  in  this  chapter  are  departments  of 
colleges  or  institutes  of  technology.  The  Chicago  school 
is  unique  in  another  respect :  it  owes  its  origin  entirely 
to  laymen.  Professional  educators  labored  long  and  ear- 
nestly to  found  the  schools  we  have  described,  but  the 
Chicago  school  was  inspired  by  men  unknown  in  the 
field  of  educational  enterprise,  advocated  by  a  secular 
daily  journal,  and  established  by  an  association  of  rner- 


340  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

chants,  manufacturers,  and  bankers.  For  many  years  the 
Chicago  Tribune  had  very  freely  and  severely  criticised 
the  educational  methods  of  the  public  schools.  Early  in 
the  year  1881  its  editorial  columns  were  opened  to  the 
author  of  this  work,  who  began  and  continued,  therein, 
the  advocacy  of  the  establishment  of  a  manual  training 
school  in  Chicago,  as  a  tentative  step  towards  the  incor- 
poration in  the  curriculum  of  the  public  schools,  of  more 
practical  methods  of  instruction. 

The  editorial  advocacy  of  the  Tribune  was  continued 
for  twelve  months,  articles  appearing  about  once  a  week, 
without  apparent  effect  beyond  provoking  a  controversy 
with  certain  professional  educators,  who  attacked  the  po- 
sitions assumed  by  the  Tribune.  But  a  public  sentiment 
had  been  created  on  the  subject,  and  the  Commercial 
Club  was  destined  soon  to  embody  that  sentiment  in  ac- 
tion. At  its  regular  monthly  meeting,  March  25,  1882, 
the  subject  of  reform  in  methods  of  education  was  dis- 
cussed by  members  of  the  club,  and  by  men  invited  to 
be  present  for  that  purpose ;  the  establishment  of  a  school 
was  resolved  upon,  and  $100,000  pledged  for  its  support. 

The  Chicago  Manual  Training  School  Association  was 
incorporated  April  11,  1883 ;  the  corner  -  stone  of  its 
building  was  laid  September  24,  1883 ;  and  the  sessions 
of  the  school  commenced  on  the  4th  of  February,  1884, 
with  a  class  of  seventy-two  students,  "selected  by  exam- 
ination from  one  hundred  and  thirty  applicants,  under 
the  directorship  of  Henry  H.  Belfield,  A.M.,  Ph.D." 

The  Board  of  Trustees  consists  of  E.  W.  Blatchford, 
president;  E,.  T.  Crane,  vice-president;  Marshall  Field, 
treasurer ;  William  A.  Fuller,  secretary ;  John  Crerar, 
John  W.  Doane,  N.  K.  Fairbank,  Edson  Keith,  and  George 
M.  Pullman. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  MANUAL  ELEMENT  IN  EDUCATION.    341 

The  object  of  the  school  is  stated  in  the  articles  of 
incorporation  as  follows : 

"  Instruction  and  practice  in  the  use  of  tools,  with  such 
instruction  as  may  be  deemed  necessary  in  mathematics, 
drawing,  and  the  English  branches  of  a  high-school  course. 
The  tool  instruction  as  at  present  contemplated  shall  in- 
clude carpentry,  wood-turning,  pattern-making,  iron  chip- 
ping and  filing,  forge- work,  brazing  and  soldering,  the  use 
of  machine  -  shop  tools,  and  such  other  instruction  of  a 
similar  character  as  may  be  deemed  advisable  to  add  to 
the  foregoing  from  time  to  time,  it  being  the  intention 
to  divide  the  working  hours  of  the  students,  as  nearly 
as  possible,  equally  between  manual  and  mental  exer- 
cises." 

From  the  first  annual  catalogue,  under  the  title  "  Build- 
ing and  Equipment,"  we  extract  the  following : 

"The  school  building  is  beautifully  located  on  Mich- 
igan Avenue,  and  contains  ample  accommodations,  in 
rooms  for  study  and  work,  for  several  hundred  pupils. 

"The  equipment  in  the  mechanical  department  con- 
sists mainly,  at  present,  of  twenty -four  cabinet-makers' 
benches ;  bench  and  lathe  tools  of  the  best  quality  for 
seventy-two  boys;  twenty-four  speed  lathes,  twelve-inch 
swing,  thirty  inches  between  centres ;  a  fifty-two  horse- 
power Corliss  engine,  twelve -inch  cylinder,  thirty -six 
inch  stroke ;  two  tubular  boilers,  forty  inches  in  diame- 
ter, fourteen  feet  long.  The  Corliss  engine,  boilers,  and 
lathes  were  made  especially  for  the  school. 

"  A  very  valuable  scientific  library  of  nearly  five  hun- 
dred volumes,  the  property  of  the  American  Electrical 
Society,  has  been  placed  in  the  school.  To  this  library, 
which  is  particularly  rich  in  works  pertaining  to  elec- 
tricity and  chemistry,  but  which  contains  also  cyclope- 


343  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

dias,  dictionaries,  and  other  works  of  reference,  the  pupils 
have  access. 

"  The  Blatchford  Literary  Society,  an  organization  of 
pupils  for  improvement  in  composition,  debate,  etc.,  has 
lately  had  a  handsome  donation  of  money  for  the  pur- 
chase of  books  to  be  placed  in  their  alcove  in  the  school 
library.  Several  periodicals  are  regularly  placed  on  the 
library  tables  through  the  generosity  of  the  publishers. 

"  By  the  kindness  of  Dr.  Wm.  F.  Poole,  librarian,  pu- 
pils are  able  to  obtain  books  from  the  Chicago  Public 
Library  on  unusually  favorable  conditions." 

Thus  the  Chicago  Manual  Training  School,  a  practical 
school,  a  school  of  instruction  in  things,  a  school  after 
Bacon's  "  own  heart,"  sprang  from  the  brain  of  a  number 
of  plain,  practical  business  men,  full-armed,  as  Minerva 
from  the  brain  of  Jupiter. 

The  Trustees  were  fortunate  in  securing  Dr.  Belfield 
for  the  directorship  of  the  school.  Before  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  new  education  to  this  country,  eleven  years 
ago,  while  Russia  was  struggling  with  the  problem  of 
tool  practice  by  the  laboratory  method,  Dr.  Belfield  urged 
the  need  of  manual  training  in  the  public  schools  of  Chi- 
cago, in  which  he  was  a  teacher.  He  was  met  with  de- 
rision ;  but  the  president  of  the  Board  of  Education  of 
Chicago  and  the  superintendent  of  schools  are  now  advo- 
cates of  the  new  system  of  training. 

In  conclusion  we  present  the  following  extracts  from 
the  inaugural  address  of  Dr.  Belfield,  delivered  before 
the  Chicago  Manual  Training  School  Association,  June 
19,  1884,  as  embodying  the  results  of  his  experience 
and  observation  as  to  the  value  of  the  new  system  of 
training : 

"The  distinctive  feature  of  the  manual  training  school 


HISTORY  OF  THE  MANUAL  ELEMENT  IN  EDUCATION.    343 

is  the  education  of  the  mind,  and  of  the  hand  as  the  agent 
of  the  mind.  The  time  of  the  pupil  in  school  is  about 
equally  divided  between  the  study  of  books  and  the  study 
of  things ;  between  the  academic  work  on  the  one  hand, 
and  the  drawing  and  shop-work  on  the  other.  Observe, 
I  do  not  say  between  school-work  and  shop-work,  for  the 
shop  is  as  much  a  school  as  is  any  other  part  of  the  es- 
tablishment. Nor  do  I  mean  that  the  shop  gives  an  edu- 
cation of  the  hand  alone,  and  the  class-room  an  education 
of  the  brain ;  but  I  mean  that  the  shop  educates  hand 
and  hrain.  That  the  hand  is  educated  I  need  not  stop 
to  prove ;  but  the  shop  educates  the  mind  also. 

"Had  you  been  in  the  wood -working  room  of  this 
school  a  few  hours  ago,  what  would  you  have  seen? 
Twenty-four  boys  at  work  at  lathes  driven  by  a  power- 
ful engine.  Are  any  idle?  No.  Are  any  inattentive 
to  their  work  ?  No ;  you  notice  the  closest  and  most 
earnest  attention,  frequently  approaching  abstraction. 
Here,  then,  is  the  cultivation  of  a  most  important  facul- 
ty of  the  mind,  attention,  the  power  of  concentration ; 
and  it  is  worthy  of  remark  that  this  attention  is  not  an 
enforced  attention,  but  is  cheerful,  voluntary,  and  unre- 
mitting. 

"The  young  workman  is  engaged  on  a  problem  in 
wood,  just  as,  a  few  hours  earlier,  he  was  engaged  on  a 
problem  in  algebra.  He  has  before  him  a  drawing  made 
to  a  scale.  The  problem  is  this  :  He  must  gain  a  clear 
conception  of  the  object  represented  by  the  drawing ;  he 
must  imagine  it ;  he  must  select  or  cut  a  block  of  wood 
of  the  proper  dimensions  and  of  the  right  quality.  It 
must  not  be  too  large,  for  he  must  guard  against  waste 
of  material  and  waste  of  time.  It  must  be  large  enough, 
for  there  must  be  no  incompleteness  about  the  finished 

15 


344  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

product  of  his  labor.  Observe  him  as  the  work  grows 
under  his  hand  ;  observe  the  selecting  of  the  proper  tools 
for  the  different  parts  of  the  process ;  observe  the  careful 
measuring,  the  watchful  eye  upon  the  position  of  the 
chisel,  the  speed  of  the  lathe,  the  gradual  approach  of 
the  once  rectangular  block  to  the  model  which  exists  in 
his  brain — and  you  must  admit  that  this  work  demands 
and  develops,  not  manual  dexterity  alone,  but  attention, 
observation,  imagination,  judgment,  reasoning.  .  .  . 

"My  own  opinion  is  that  an  hour  in  the  shop  of  a 
well-conducted  manual  training  school  develops  as  much 
mental  strength  as  an  hour  devoted  to  Yirgil  or  Legen- 
dre.  .  .  . 

"But  of  this  I  am  confident,  that  three  years  of  a 
manual  training  school  will  give  at  least  as  much  purely 
intellectual  growth  as  three  years  of  the  ordinary  high 
school,  because,  as  has  been  said,  every  school  hour,  wheth- 
er spent  in  the  class-room,  the  drawing-room,  or  in  the 
shop,  is  an  hour  devoted  to  intellectual  training.  And  I 
am  also  convinced  that  the  manual  training  school  boy's 
comprehension  of  some  essential  branches  of  knowledge 
will  be  as  far  superior  to  that  of  the  other  boy's,  as  tho 
realization  of  the  grandeur  and  beauty  of  the  Alps  to  tho 
man  who  has  seen  their  glories  is  superior  to  the  concep- 
tion of  him  who  has  merely  read  of  them.  .  .  . 

"  And  here  is  the  mistake  of  those  who  would  degrade 
a  manual  training  school  into  a  manufacturing  establish- 
ment. The  fact  should  never  be  lost  sight  of  for  an 
instant  that  the  product  of  the  school  should  be,  not  the 
polished  article  of  furniture,  not  the  perfect  piece  of  ma- 
chinery, but  the  polished,  perfect  boy.  The  acquisition 
of  industrial  skill  should  be  the  means  of  promoting  the 
general  education  of  the  pupil ;  the  education  of  the  hand 


HISTORY  OF  THE  MANUAL  ELEMENT  IN  EDUCATION.    345 

should  be  the  means  of  more  completely  and  more  effica- 
ciously educating  the  brain.  .  .  . 

"Take  two  boys,  one  with  little  or  no  education,  the 
other  a  high -school  graduate;  let  them  enter  the  ma- 
chine-shop of  a  large  manufactory,  beginning,  as  boys 
ignorant  of  the  technique  of  the  trade  must  begin,  at  the 
lowest  round  of  the  ladder.  It  cannot  be  doubted  that 
in  three  or  four  years  the  high-school  graduate,  if  he  had 
been  willing  to  do  the  drudgery  incident  to  the  place, 
would  have  reached  a  higher  position  than  the  other  boy, 
and  would  be  in  a  fair  way  to  succeed  to  some  responsi- 
ble post  in  the  establishment.  But  the  graduate  of  the 
manual  training  school,  by  reason  of  his  superior  knowl- 
edge of  machinery  and  materials,  his  skill  in  the  use  of 
tools,  added  to  his  general  mental  training,  would  begin 
at  the  point  reached  by  the  high  -  school  boy  after  his 
years  of  apprenticeship.  From  the  day  of  his  entrance 
into  the  factory  he  would  be  conspicuous.  While  the 
other  boys  would  stand  in  the  presence  of  the  huge  Titan 
of  the  shop  lost  in  the  wonder  of  ignorance,  the  manual 
training  boy  would  gaze  with  delight  on  the  marvel  of 
mechanism,  wrapped  in  the  admiration  begotten  of  a 
thorough  understanding  of  its  construction,  and  strong 
in  the  consciousness  of  his  mastery  of  it." 

Manual  training  was  introduced  in  the  Pennsylvania 
State  College,  experimentally,  about  three  years  ago.  In 
1883  the  course  was  "greatly  extended,"  and  in  Sep- 
tember, 1884,  it  went  into  full  operation.  The  course 
is  substantially  the  same  as  that  of  the  Chicago  school ; 
and  that  it  was  the  outgrowth  of  the  Russian  system, 
and  inspired  by  Dr.  Runkle,  is  shown  by  the  following 
extract  from  a  circular  lately  issued  by  Prof.  Louis  E. 
Reber: 


346  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

"  Some  may  think  that  the  variety  of  operations  in  the 
mechanic  arts  is  so  great  as  to  make  it  impossible  to  give 
the  student  any  real  knowledge  in  the  time  at  his  dis- 
posal. It  should  be  borne  in  mind,  however,  that  this 
multiplicity  of  processes  may  be  reduced  to  a  small  num- 
ber of  manual  operations,  and  the  numerous  tools  em- 
ployed are  only  modifications  of,  or  convenient  substi- 
tutes for,  a  few  tools  which  are  in  general  use." 

A  course  in  tool  practice  by  the  laboratory  method  has 
been  made  part  of  the  curriculum  of  the  College  of  the 
City  of  New  York.*  I  am  permitted  to  make  an  extract 
from  a  letter  written  in  August  last  by  Alfred  G.  Comp- 
ton,  Professor  of  Applied  Mathematics  of  the  College  of 
the  City  of  New  York,  to  Dr.  Runkle.  I  print  this  ex- 
tract to  show  the  exacting  nature  of  the  demands  made 
upon  instructors  by  the  new  education.  It  is  as  follows : 

"  We  are  anxious  to  find,  by  the  opening  of  our  term 
in  September,  a  competent  instructor  in  wood-working 
for  our  course  in  mechanic  arts,  now  in  its  second  year. 
He  should  be  a  good  and  ready  draughtsman,  skilful  in 
perspective  and  projections,  and  ready  in  black-board 
sketching,  besides  being  acquainted  with  the  use  of  tools, 
and  apt  at  class-teaching.  He  will  have  at  first  $1000  a 
year." 

The  lack  of  competent  instructors  is  the  most  serious 
difficulty  which  the  new  education  is  destined  to  encoun- 
ter. The  desire  to  adopt  tool  practice  is  so  widespread 
among  the  people  that  educators,  whether  willing  or  oth- 

*  "The  first  report  of  the  Industrial  Educational  Association  of 
New  York  gives  a  list  of  thirty-one  schools  in  that  city  in  which  in- 
dustrial education  is  furnished." — Address  of  Prof.  S.  R.  Thompson, 
Industrial  Department  of  the  National  Educational  Association,  Sara- 
toga Springs,  N.  Y.,  July,  1885. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  MANUAL  ELEMENT  IN  EDUCATION.    347 

erwise,  are  compelled  to  attempt  to  gratify  the  demand. 
At  the  same  time  the  force  of  competent  instructors  is 
very  small,  and  the  danger  is  that  the  new  system  of  ed- 
ucation will  be  brought  into  disrepute  through  the  failure 
of  its  proper  administration. 

In  1882  Mr.  Paul  Tulane,  of  Princeton,  K.  J.,  made  a 
large  donation,  consisting  of  his  realty  in  the  city  of 
New  Orleans,  in  aid  of  education  in  the  State  of  Louisi- 
ana. In  1884  the  University  bearing  its  donor's  name 
—Tulane — came  into  existence.  In  the  deed  of  dona- 
tion Mr.  Tulane  declared  that  by  the  term  education  he 
meant  to  "  foster  such  a  course  of  intellectual  develop- 
ment as  shall  be  useful  and  of  solid  worth,  and  not  be 
merely  ornamental  or  superficial."  Hence  manual  train- 
ing has  been  made  a  prominent  feature  of  the  insti- 
tution.* 

There  is  in  operation  at  Crozet,  Va.,  a  manual  training 
school  called,  after  its  founder,  Mr.  Samuel  Miller,  "  The 
Miller  Manual  Labor  School ;"  but  of  the  methods  of 
training  pursued  at  this  school  the  author  is  not  accu- 
rately informed. 

Girard  College,  dedicated  nearly  forty  years  ago,  has 
adopted  manual  training.  In  response  to  a  letter  by  the 
author,  asking  for  information,  Mr.  ~W.  Heyward  Dray- 
ton,  of  Philadelphia,  gives  the  following  historical  sketch 
of  the  introduction  and  progress  of  tool  practice  by  the 
laboratory  method  in  that  noble  institution : 

*  John  M.  Ordway,  A.M.,  late  Professor  of  Metallurgy  and  Indus- 
trial Chemistry  of  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology,  has  been 
called  to  New  Orleans  to  organize  and  direct  the  manual  training 
department  of  the  institution;  and  he  is  assisted  by  Charles  A. 
Heath,  B.S.,  and  Everett  E.  Hapgood,  graduates  of  the  School  of 
Mechanic  Arts  of  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology. 


348  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

"  From  time  to  time  some  of  the  directors  recognized 
the  importance  of  mechanical  instruction,  but  after  one 
or  two  attempts  further  efforts  in  this  direction  were 
abandoned,  as  those  proved  utter  failures.  It  was  not 
until  Dr.  Runkle,  of  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Tech- 
nology, at  the  instance  of  the  late  Mr.  William  Welsh, 
then  president  of  the  Board  of  Directors  of  City  Trusts, 
delivered  a  short  address  on  the  subject  in  the  lecture- 
room  of  the  Franklin  Institute  in  this  city,  that  any  prac- 
tical mode  of  introducing  this  branch  of  study  into  the 
college  was  presented. 

" . . .  Following  as  nearly  as  possible  the  scheme  suggest- 
ed by  Dr.  Runkle,  and  aided  by  many  suggestions  from 
him,  in  April,  1882,  we  began  to  instruct  the  larger  boys 
to  use  tools  in  several  kinds  of  metals.  We  were  so  fort- 
unate as  to  secure  the  services  of  a  very  competent  and 
enthusiastic  instructor,  who  confined  his  instruction  mere- 
ly to  teaching  the  use  of  tools,  but  without  any  pretence 
of  teaching  any  trade.  The  result  of  two  years'  experi- 
ence has  been  so  satisfactory  that  our  boys  leave  the  col- 
lege to  go  to  workshops,  where  they  secure  sufficient 
wages  to  support  them  at  once ;  and  they  have,  in  many 
cases,  been  found  so  expert  that  in  a  few  months  their 
wages  have  been  increased.  We  have  been  so  encour- 
aged by  this  as  a  substitute  for  apprenticing  lads,  which 
is  fast  becoming  impossible,  that  we  have  just  erected 
commodious  workshops  [laboratories],  in  which,  on  the 
same  system,  but  to  many  more  boys,  we  propose  to  teach 
the  use  of  tools  in  wood-work  also,  as  we  have  hereto- 
fore taught  in  metals.  To  this  time  we  have  been  com- 
pelled, from  want  of  facilities,  to  confine  our  instruction 
to  a*bout  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  boys.  We  expect 
next  month  (October,  1884)  to  increase  the  number  to 


HISTORY  OF  SHE  MANUAL  ELEMENT  IN  EDUCATION.    349 

three  hundred — only  being  limited  by  the  youth  of  the 
pupils,  many  of  whom  are  too  young  to  permit  of  their 
handling  tools." 

Manual  training  has  been  made  part  of  the  curriculum 
of  the  Agricultural  and  Mechanical  College  of  Auburn, 
Ala.,  and  the  department  is  under  the  direction  of  a  grad- 
uate of  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology.* 

Manual  training  has  been  adopted  as  a  branch  of  edu- 
cation in  the  Denver  (Col.)  University,  and  the  director 
of  the  department  is  a  graduate  of  the  manual  training 
department  of  the  Washington  University  of  St.  Louis, 
Mo.f 

The  present  year  (1885)  witnesses  a  very  important 
addition  to  the  list  of  manual  training  schools — that  of 
Philadelphia. 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  Mr.  James  MacAlister 
has  revolutionized  the  public  schools  of  Philadelphia  in 
the  short  period  of  two  years  during  which  he  has  held 
the  office  of  superintendent;  and  the  last  wave  of  the 
revolution  reveals  a  fully-equipped  manual  training  school 
as  part  of  the  public-school  system  of  the  conservative, 
grand  old  Quaker  city.  And  this  practical  element  in 
education  is  to  be  free  to  all  public-school  boys  fourteen 
years  of  age,  who  can  show  themselves  qualified  to  en- 
ter, as  witness  the  following  "  rules  "  of  the  Philadelphia 
public  schools : 

"  Promotions  to  the  Manual  Training  School  shall  be 
made  at  the  close  of  the  June  term,  from  the  Twelfth 

*  George  H.  Bryant,  B.S.,  graduate  of  the  Massachusetts  Institute 
of  Technology,  class  of  1883. 

f  C.  H.  Wright,  B.S.,  graduate  of  the  St.  Louis  Manual  Training 
School,  class  of  1885. 


350  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

Grade,  or  any  higher  grade,  of  the  Boys'  Grammar,  Con- 
solidated and  Combined  Schools;  but  no  boy  shall  be 
promoted  who  is  under  fourteen  years  of  age. 

"  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  Principals  of  the  several 
Boys'  Grammar,  Consolidated  and  Combined  Schools,  to 
certify  to  the  superintendent  of  schools  the  names  of  all 
boys  of  the  proper  age  who  have  finished  the  course  of 
study  in  the  Twelfth  Grade,  or  any  higher  grade,  and  are 
desirous  of  promotion  to  the  Manual  Training  School." 

In  calling  the  attention  of  the  public  to  the  establish- 
ment of  a  manual  training  school  as  part  of  the  educa- 
tional system  of  Philadelphia,  a  committee  of  the  City 
Board  of  Education  say,  under  date  of  June  10, 1885, 

"  The  undersigned  desire  to  call  attention  to  the  new 
manual  training  school  to  be  opened  in  this  city  next 
September.  It  is  intended  for  boys  who  have  finished 
the  Twelfth  Grade,  or  any  higher  grade,  of  the  Gram- 
mar-school course.  The  instruction  will  embrace  a  thor- 
ough course,  so  far  as  it  goes,  in  English,  mathematics, 
free-hand  and  mechanical  drawing,  and  the  fundamental 
sciences;  but  in  addition  to  these  branches  a  carefully 
graded  course  of  manual  training  will  form  a  leading 
feature  of  the  school.  This  manual  training  is  intended 
to  give  the  boys  such  a  knowledge  of  the  tools  and  ma- 
terials employed  in  the  chief  industrial  pursuits  of  our 
time  as  shall  place  them  in  more  direct  and  sympathetic 
relations  with  the  great  activities  of  the  business  world. 
The  school  will  make  our  public  education  not  only  more 
complete  and  symmetrical  in  character  than  it  has  been 
heretofore,  but  it  will  be  at  the  same  time  better  adapted 
to  enable  the  pupils  to  win  their  way  in  life.  No  matter 
what  future  a  parent  may  have  marked  out  for  his  boy — 
whether  he  be  intended  for  an  industrial,  a  mercantile,  or 


HISTORY  OF  THE  MANUAL  ELEMENT  IN  EDUCATION.    351 

a  professional  occupation,  it  is  believed  that  such  an  edu- 
cation will  be  of  immense  advantage  to  him.  Upon  the 
industries  of  the  world,  to  a  much  larger  extent  than  ever 
before  in  its  history,  depend  the  progress,  the  prosperity, 
the  happiness  of  society.  To  prepare  boys  for  this  con- 
dition of  things  will  be  the  aim  of  this  school.  The  en- 
tire course  of  instruction  and  training  will  be  practical 
in  the  largest  and  best  sense  of  that  term.  The  culture 
it  gives  will  include  the  hand  as  well  as  the  head,  and 
its  graduates  will  be  trained  to  work  as  well  as  to  think. 
The  course  will  extend  over  a  period  of  three  years,  but 
it  is  so  arranged  that  boys  whose  intended  pursuits  in 
life  will  not  warrant  spending  so  much  time  may  partici- 
pate in  its  advantages  for  a  shorter  period  before  enter- 
ing upon  other  studies  or  a  permanent  occupation. 

"  The  Manual  Training  School  has  been  organized  in 
response  to  a  growing  sentiment  respecting  the  character 
of  public  education  which  has  been  strongly  manifested 
in  Philadelphia,  and  the  Board  of  Public  Education  be- 
lieve that  the  movement,  when  fully  understood,  will 
meet  with  the  cordial  approval  of  our  people.  Your 
careful  consideration  of  the  nature  and  objects  which 
the  school  seeks  to  accomplish  is  respectfully  solicited." 

This  act  of  the  school  authorities  of  the  city  of  Phila- 
delphia is  the  strongest  popular  endorsement  the  theory 
of  manual  training  as  an  element  of  education  has  re- 
ceived. It  commits  a  great  city  to  a  fair  trial  of  the  new 
education  under  the  most  favorable  auspices — under  the 
conduct  of  Mr.  James  MacAlister,  one  of  the  most  ac- 
complished, as  well  as  most  sternly  practical  educators 
in  the  United  States. 

But  this  is  only  part  of  a  general  system  of  manual 
training  introduced  throughout  the  whole  course  of  in- 


352  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

struction  given  in  the  public  schools  of  Philadelphia. 
There  are  kindergartens  (sub  -  primaries)  for  children 
from  three  to  six  years  of  age,  and  an  industrial  art 
department  for  all  the  students  (of  both  sexes)  of  the 
grammar  schools.  In  this  latter  department  the  course 
of  training  comprises  "drawing  and  design,"  "model- 
ling," "  wood  -  carving,"  "  carpentry  and  joinery,"  and 
"  metal  work."  These  courses,  including  manual  train- 
ing proper,  "  at  the  top,"  form  a  comprehensive  system 
of  head  and  hand  training  known  as  the  new  education. 
Mr.  MacAlister  says,  "  The  conviction  is  gradually  ob- 
taining among  the  members  of  the  Board  of  Education 
[of  Philadelphia],  and  in  the  public  mind,  that  every 
child  should  receive  manual  training ;  that  a  complete 
education  implies  the  training  of  the  hand  in  connection 
with  the  training  of  the  mind ;  and  that  this  feature 
must  ultimately  be  incorporated  into  the  public  educa- 
tion. "What  is  this  but  the  realization  of  the  principles 
which  every  great  thinker  and  reformer  in  education 
has  insisted  upon,  from  Comenius,  Locke,  and  Rousseau, 
to  Pestalozzi,  Froebel,  and  Spencer !"  * 

*  In  a  recent  letter  to  the  author,  Mr.  MacAlister  re-enforces  the 
observations  quoted  in  the  text.  He  says, 

"  I  wish  you  to  understand  that  all  my  own  convictions  and  action 
in  connection  with  this  movement  are  based  upon  what  in  my  judg- 
ment should  constitute  an  education  fitted  to  prepare  a  human  being 
for  the  social  conditions  of  to-day,  and  not  merely  upon  the  industrial 
demands  of  our  time.  ...  I  believe  there  is  a  great  future  for  the 
manual  training  movement  in  Philadelphia.  I  feel  encouraged  to  go 
forward  with  the  work.  The  great  principles  which  underlie  the 
system  are  with  me  intense  convictions;  tJiey  mean  nothing  less  than 
a  revolution  in  education.  The  great  ideas  of  the  reformers  of  school 
training  must  be  realized  in  the  public  schools,  or  they  will  fail  in 
accomplishing  the  ends  for  which  they  were  instituted  and  have  been 
maintained." 


HISTORY  OF  THE  MANUAL  ELEMENT  IN  EDUCATION.    353 

The  rapid  progress  of  the  revolution  in  education  is 
shown  by  the  fact  that  manual  training  in  some  form 
has  been  adopted  in  certain  of  the  schools  of  at  least 
twenty-four  of  the  States  of  the  American  Union. 

In  some  of  the  higher  educational  institutions  the  new 
education  is  warmly  welcomed,  while  in  others  public 
sentiment  alone  compels  its  adoption.  The  State  Agri- 
cultural and  Mechanical  College  of  Texas  has  been  rev- 
olutionized in  this  way.  A  member  of  the  Faculty* 
writes  as  follows : 

"  This  institution  was  opened  on  the  4th  of  October, 
1876.  In  spite  of  its  name,  the  conditions  of  its  endow- 
ment, and  its  avowed  object,  it  was  founded  on  the  plan 
of  the  old  classical  and  mathematical  college,  and  had 
no  industrial  features  whatever  till  the  beginning  of  the 
year  1880.  At  that  time  the  public  sentiment  of  the 
State  had  condemned  so  decidedly  and  repeatedly  the 
misappropriation  of  the  funds,  and  perversion  of  the  en- 
ergies of  the  college  under  its  administration  as  a  literary 
school,  that  the  directors  found  it  necessary  to  reorgan- 
ize it  by  accepting  the  resignation  of  the  members  of 
the  faculty  without  exception,  and  calling  in  a  new  corps 
of  instructors.  In  1880-81  a  large  dormitory  building 
was  converted  into  a  shop  [laboratory].  This  was  fitted 
with  tools  for  elementary  instruction  in  wood-working 
for  the  accommodation  of  about  fifty  students.  A  small 
metal  -  working  plant  was  also  erected,  the  whole  being 
furnished  with  power  from  a  twelve-horse-power  engine. 
Since  that  time  a  brick  shop  [laboratory]  has  been  pro- 
vided for  the  accommodation  of  the  metal-working  ma- 
chinery, which  now  includes  the  principal  machines  used 

*  H.  H.  Dinwiddie,  Professor  of  Chemistry,  Chairman  of  the  Faculty. 


354  MANUAL  TKAINING. 

in  ordinary  iron-working,  all  driven  by  a  twenty-horse- 
power engine." 

Massachusetts,  the  cradle  of  the  American  common- 
school  system,  is  the  first  State  to  legalize  by  statute  the 
new  education,  placing  manual  training  on  an  equal  foot- 
ing with  mental  training,  by  the  following  act : 

"  Section  I.  of  Chapter  XLIV.  of  the  Public  Statutes, 
relating  to  the  branches  of  instruction  to  be  taught  in 
public  schools,  is  amended  by  striking  out  in  the  eighth 
line  the  words  'and  hygiene,'  and  inserting  instead  the 
words  '  hygiene  and  the  elementary  use  of  hand-tools ;' 
and  in  any  city  or  town  where  such  tools  shall  be  intro- 
duced they  shall  be  purchased  by  the  school  committee 
at  the  expense  of  such  city  or  town,  and  loaned  to  such 
pupils  as  may  be  allowed  to  use  them  free  of  charge, 
subject  to  such  rules  and  regulations,  as  to  care  and  cus- 
tody, as  the  school  committee  may  prescribe."  * 

The  Legislature  of  Connecticut  adopted  a  similar  stat- 
ute last  year  (1884). 

The  Iowa  Agricultural  College  is  the  first  educational 
institution  in  the  country  to  recognize  the  importance 
of  instruction  in  the  arts  of  home  life.  In  this  college 
domestic  economy  has  been  elevated  to  the  dignity  of  a 
department  called  the  "  School  of  Domestic  Economy," 
with  the  following  "  special  faculty :" 

The  President,  Mrs.  Emma  P.  Ewing,  Dean. Domestic  Economy. 
J.  L.  Budd Horticulture  and  Gardening. 

A.  A.  Bennett Chemistry. 

B.  D.  Halsted Botany. 

D.  S.  Fairchild  .• Hygiene  and  Physiology. 

Laura  M.  Saunderson Elocution. 

*  "School  Laws  of  Massachusetts,  Supplement  to  the  Edition  of 
1883,  containing  the  Additional  Legislation  to  the  Close  of  the  Legis- 
lative Session  of  1885;  issued  by  the  State  Board  of  Education." 


HISTORY  OF  THE  MANUAL  ELEMENT  IN  EDUCATION.    355 

The  course  of  study  is  as  follows : 

FIRST  YEAR. 


First  Term. 

Domestic  Economy. 

Botany. 

Physical  Training. 

Household  Accounts. 


Second  Term. 
Domestic  Economy. 
Physiology  and  Hygiene. 
Dress-fitting  and  Millinery. 
Essavs. 


SECOND  YEAR. 


First  Term. 

Domestic  Economy. 
Chemistry. 
Duties  of  the  Nurse. 
Designing  and  Free-hand  Draw- 
ing. 
Landscape  and  Floral  Gardening. 


Second  Term. 
Domestic  Economy. 
Home  Architecture. 
Home  Sanitation. 
Home  Esthetics  and  Decorative 

Art. 
Essays  and  Graduating  Thesis. 


Mrs.  Ewing,  dean  of  the  school,  thus  states,  clearly 
and  powerfully,  the  reasons  for  its  establishment  and  its 
purposes : 

"This  school  is  based  upon  the  assumption  that  no 
industry  is  more  important  to  human  happiness  than  that 
which  makes  the  home ;  and  that  a  pleasant  home  is  an 
essential  element  of  broad  culture,  and  one  of  the  surest 
safeguards  of  morality  and  virtue.  It  was  organized  to 
meet  the  wants  of  pupils  who  desire  a  knowledge  of  the 
principles  that  underlie  domestic  economy,  and  the  course 
of  study  is  especially  arranged  to  furnish  women  instruc- 
tion in  applied  house-keeping  and  the  arts  and  sciences 
relating  thereto — to  incite  them  to  a  faithful  performance 
of  the  e  very-day  duties  of  life,  and  to  inspire  them  with 
a  belief  in  the  nobleness  and  dignity  of  a  true  woman- 
hood. 

"  No  calling  requires  for  its  perfect  mastery  a  greater 


356  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

amount  of  practice  and  theory  combined  than  that  of 
domestic  economy,  and  students,  in  addition  to  recita- 
tions and  lectures  on  the  various  topics  of  the  course, 
receive"  practical  training  in  all  branches  of  house-work, 
in  the  purchase  and  care  of  family  supplies,  and  in  gen- 
eral household  management.  They  are  not,  however, 
required  to  perform  a  greater  amount  of  labor  than  is 
necessary  for  the  desired  instruction. 

"  The  course  of  study  is  for  graduates  of  colleges  and 
universities.  It  extends  through  two  years,  and  leads  to 
the  degree  of  Master  of  Domestic  Economy."  * 

The  Le  Moyne  Normal  Institute  of  Memphis,  Tenn., 
is  a  private  school,  "sustained  chiefly  by  benevolently 
disposed  people  at  the  North,  for  colored  youth."  In  a 
letter  to  the  author  the  principal  of  this  school  thus  de- 
scribes the  manual  features  of  its  curriculum : 

"Besides  our  Normal  work  proper,  we  give  girls  of 
the  school  two  years'  training  in  needle-work  of  different 
kinds,  one  year's  instruction  in  choice  and  preparation  of 
foods,  with  practice  in  an  experimental  kitchen,  and  six 
months'  training  in  nursing  or  care  of  the  sick.  One 
hour  a  day  is  given  to  each  of  the  foregoing  subjects  for 
the  time  indicated. 

"I  am  about  to  erect  workshops  for  training  for  our 
boys  in  the  use  of  wood-working  tools,  and  in  iron-work- 
ing and  moulding — the  course  to  comprise  two  years' 
time,  two  hours  per  day  at  the  benches.  We  shall  also 
have  type-setting  and  printing  as  specialties  for  individ- 
ual students.  This  work  will  be  in  operation  in  Janu- 
ary, 1886."  f 


*  Annual  Catalogue  of  the  Iowa  Agricultural  College, 
f  A.  J.  Steele. 


HISTORY  OP  THE  MANUAL  ELEMENT  IN  EDUCATION.    357 

The  professor  in  charge  of  the  Mechanical  Engineer- 
ing Department  of  the  University  of  Michigan  writes  to 
the  author  as  follows  : 

"There  can  be  no  doubt  in  the  mind  of  a  sane  man 
that  this  practical  instruction  [laboratory  work]  is  exact- 
ly what  is  needed  by  our  engineering  students.  We  are 
assured  of  that  fact  by  the  expression  of  gratification  on 
the  part  of  our  engineering  alumni  to  find  here  the  very 
instruction  which  they  were  obliged  to  spend  two  or 
three  years  to  secure  after  graduating.  We  give  our 
students  work  of  an  elementary  character  for  a  few 
weeks,  or  until  they  become  accustomed  to  tools,  when 
we  put  them  to  work  on  some  part  of  a  machine.  If 
they  spoil  it,  well  and  good — it  goes  into  the  scrap-heap ; 
if  they  succeed,  they  have  the  pleasure  of  seeing  a  per- 
fect machine  grow  up  under  their  eyes  and  hand.  Stu- 
dents having  matured  minds,  as  most  of  ours  have,  work 
better  with  a  definite  plan  in  view.  We  always  require 
them  to  work  from  drawings.  Our  course  in  forging  is 
very  popular ;  and  it  is  especially  useful,  as  it  gives  our 
young  men  that  knowledge  of  the  different  kinds  of  iron 
and  steel  which  will  be  of  the  greatest  benefit  to  them 
as  engineers."  * 

The  National  Educational  Association  of  the  United 
States,  at  its  last  meeting,  at  Saratoga  Springs,  N".  Y. 
(1885),  took  a  great  step  forward  in  the  adoption  of  a 
resolution  f  endorsing  the  kindergarten.  The  association 
was,  however,  singularly  illogical  in  its  subsequent  ac- 

*  Mortimer  E.  Cooley,  Assistant  Engineer,  U.  S.  Navy. 

f  ' '  Resolved,  That  we  trust  the  time  is  near  at  hand  when  the  true 
principles  of  the  kindergarten  will  guide  all  elementary  training,  and 
when  public  sentiment  and  legislative  enactment  will  incorporate  the 
kindergarten  into  our  public-school  system." 


358  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

tion,  in  voting  to  lay  upon  the  table  a  resolution*  recom- 
mending the  introduction  of  manual  training  to  the  pub- 
lic schools.  The  kindergarten  and  manual  training  are 
one  in  principle,  and  should  be  one  in  practice.  All 
educators  will  soon  see  this,  and  the  National  Education- 
al Association  will  no  doubt  soon  place  itself  as  heartily 
on  record  in  support  of  manual  training  as  it  has  already 
done  in  support  of  the  kindergarten. 

Ohio  ranks  as  the  third  State  in  the  Union  industrially, 
and  she  is  making  great  strides  in  the  direction  of  a  more 
practical  system  of  education.  This  is  shown  by  the 
prominent  place  given  to  instruction  in  the  mechanic 
arts  in  the  State  University  at  Columbus,  by  the  pros- 
perity of  the  Case  School  of  Applied  Science,  and  the  in- 
troduction of  manual  training  to  the  public-school  sys- 
tem at  Cleveland,  and  by  the  establishment  of  the  Scott 
Manual  Training  School  at  Toledo.  The  city  of  Toledo 
owes  the  inception  of  the  movement  in  support  of  the 
new  education  to  the  munificence  of  the  late  Jesup  "W. 
Scott,  who  during  his  life  conveyed  to  trustees  for  pur- 
poses of  industrial  education,  in  connection  with  the 
public-school  system,  certain  valuable  real  estate.  After 
the  death  of  Mr.  Scott,  his  three  sons,f  still  residents  of 
Toledo,  supplemented  their  father's  donation  with  a  suf- 
ficient sum  of  money  to  secure  the  erection  and  com- 
plete equipment  of  a  manual  training  school  for  three 
hundred  and  fifty  pupils. 

The  school  is  modelled  after  the  schools  of  St.  Louis 
and  Chicago ;  but  it  gives  only  the  manual  side  of  the 

*  "Resolved,  That  we  recognize  the  educational  value  of  training 
the  hand  to  skill  in  the  use  of  tools,  and  recommend  that  provision 
be  made,  as  far  as  practicable,  for  such  training  in  public  schools." 

f  William  F.,  Frank  J.,  and  Maurice  Scott. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  MANUAL  ELEMENT  IN  EDUCATION.    359 

curriculum,  because  it  is  conducted  in  connection  with 
the  public  High  School,  receiving  its  pupils  therefrom. 
It  opened  in  the  autumn  of  1884  with  sixty  pupils,  ten 
of  whom  were  girls.  Its  register  now  numbers  two  hun- 
dred, fifty  of  whom  are  girls.  Its  course  for  boys  is  sub- 
stantially the  same  as  that  of  the  Chicago  school.  The 
course  for  girls  includes  free-hand  and  mechanical  draw- 
ing, designing,  modelling,  wood-carving,  cutting,  fitting, 
and  making  garments,  and  domestic  science,  including 
food  preparation  and  household  decoration.  A  distin- 
guished lawyer  and  citizen  of  Toledo,*  who  has  been 
prominent  in  the  work  of  establishing  the  school,  says, 

"  The  brightest  and  most  faithful  pupils  of  the  High 
School  have  eagerly  availed  themselves  of  the  opportunity 
for  manual  instruction,  and  the  zeal  with  which  this  new 
work  is  pursued  has  added  a  new  charm  to  school  life." 

The  school  is  in  charge  of  Mr.  Ralph  Miller,  B.S.,  who 
is  assisted  by  Mr.  Geo.  S.  Mills,  B.S.f  It  is  especially 
interesting,  both  as  the  newest  educational  enterprise  and 
because  it  places  the  sexes  on  a  footing  of  absolute  equal- 
ity. Reform  in  education  must  begin  with  woman,  for 
it  is  from  her  that  man  inherits  his  notable  traits,  and 
from  her  that  he  receives  the  earliest  and  most  enduring 
impressions.  In  the  arms  of  the  mother  the  infant  mind 
rapidly  unfolds.  It  is  in  the  cradle,  in  the  nursery,  and 
at  the  fireside  that  the  child  becomes  father  of  the  man. 
The  regeneration  of  the  race  through  education  must, 
then,  begin  with  the  child,  and  be  directed  by  the  moth- 
er ;  and  this  being  the  fact,  the  education  of  woman  be- 
comes far  more  imperative  than  that  of  man. 

*  Hon.  A.  E.  Macomber. 

f  Graduates  of  the  St.  Louis  Manual  Training  School,  class  of  1884. 


360  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

That  the  ancients  made  so  little  progress  in  morals  is 
due  to  the  fact  of  their  neglect  of  the  education  of  wom- 
an. Neither  in  Egypt  nor  Persia  was  provision  made 
for  her  mental  or  moral  training.  There  were  schools 
for  boys  in  Greece,  but  none  for  girls ;  and  not  till  late 
in  the  Empire  was  there  any  special  culture  for  girls  in 
Rome. 

In  the  Middle  Ages  learning  was  confined  to  the  relig- 
ious orders.  The  narrow  bounds  of  the  convent  con- 
tained all  there  was  of  science  and  art.  In  the  castle 
and  at  the  tournament  woman  ministered  to  man's  pride 
and  vanity ;  and  in  the  peasant's  hut,  which  was  the 
abode  equally  of  poverty  and  ignorance,  she  endured 
both  mental  and  moral  starvation.  Sir  Walter  Raleigh, 
Lord  Bacon,  Swift,  Addison,  Lord  Chesterfield,  Dr.  John- 
son, and  Southey  treated  woman  with  mingled  contempt 
and  pity,  and  yet  they  were  familiar  with  the  story  of 
Lucretia,  of  Virginia,  and  of  the  Maid  of  Orleans  !  But 
Shakespeare,  with  a  sublimer  genius,  portrayed  a  Cor- 
delia, a  Desdemona,  an  Imogen,  and  a  Queen  Catharine, 
and  with  rare  prevision  of  a  future  better  than  the  age 
he  knew,  wrote  these  glowing  lines : 

"  Falsehood  and  cowardice 
Are  things  that  women  highly  hold  in  hate." 

This  is  the  rational  age,  though  not  less  truly  chival- 
rous than  that  of  Arthur  and  his  knights ;  for,  as  Ruskin 
well  says,  "The  buckling  oh  of  the  knight's  armor  by 
his  lady's  hand  is  the  type  of  an  eternal  truth — that  the 
soul's  armor  is  never  well  set  to  the  heart  unless  a  wom- 
an's hand  has  braced  it."  * 

*  "Sesame  and  Lilies,"  p.  97.    By  John  Ruskin,  LL.D.    New 
York:  John  Wiley  &  Sons,  1884. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  MANUAL  ELEMENT  IN  EDUCATION.    361 

The  distinguishing  features  of  this  time  are  its  homes 
and  its  schools,  and  the  purity  of  the  one  and  the  effi- 
ciency of  the  other  depends  upon  woman.  It  was  re- 
served for  Froebel  to  rescue  woman  from  the  scorn  of 
preceding  ages  by  declaring  her  superior  fitness  for  the 
office  of  teacher — the  most  exalted  of  civil  functions. 

The  growth  of  the  kindergarten  has  not  been  com- 
mensurate with  its  importance.  Indifference  and  preju- 
dice have  united  to  discourage  progress.  Ancient  con- 
tempt of  childhood  —  that  contempt  which  in  Persia 
excluded  the  boy  from  the  presence  of  his  father  until 
the  fifth  year  of  his  age  *  —  projects  its  sombre  shadow 
down  the  ages.  But  manual  training,  which  is  the  kin- 
dergarten in  another  form,  is  leading  captive  the  imagi- 
nation of  the  American  people,  and  where  the  imagina- 
tion leads,  woman  is  in  the  van.  Woman  is  to  man 
what  the  poet  is  to  the  scientist,  what  Shakespeare  was 
to  Newton,  the  celestial  guide.  She  tempts  to  deeds  of 
heroism  and  self-sacrifice.  She  is  less  selfish  than  man, 
because  a  more  vivid  imagination  inspires  her  with  a 
deeper  feeling  of  compassion  for  the  misfortunes  and 
follies  of  the  race.  Her  intuitions  are  truer  than  those 
of  man,  her  ideals  higher,  her  sense  of  justice  finer,  and 
of  duty  stronger ;  and  she  has  a  better  appreciation  of 
the  moral  value  of  industry,  remembering  the  tempta- 
tions of  her  sex  to  evil  through,  habits  of  idleness,  en- 
forced by  the  decrees  of  custom.  And  she  is  our  teach- 
er, whether  we  will  or  no — our  teacher  from  the  cradle 
to  the  grave — and  it  is  through  her  ministry  that  we  arc 
destined  to  realize  our  highest  mental  and  moral  ideals. 

This  sketch  of  the  history  of  manual  training  in  the 

*  "Herodotus,"  Clio  I,  p.  136. 


363  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

United  States  is  doubtless  incomplete.  It  is,  however, 
sufficient  to  show  that  the  subject  is  already  one  of 
absorbing  interest  in  all  parts  of  the  country. 

Manual  training  in  the  public  schools  of  Europe  can 
scarcely  be  called  educational,  since  the  pupils  usually 
make  articles  for  household  use.  The  purpose  is  purely 
industrial,  and  hence  the  mental  culture  received  in  the 
course  of  the  manual  exercise  is  the  mere  incident  of  a 
mechanical  pursuit.  But  the  making  of  things  in  the 
schools  of  Europe  is  gradually  extending. 

In  Denmark  an  annual  appropriation  ($2000)  is  made 
by  the  Legislature  for  the  encouragement  of  slojd  (hand- 
cunning)  in  the  schools.  All  pupils  in  Danish  and  Swed- 
ish school's  make  things. 

In  Germany,  Dr.  Erasmus  Schwab  published  in  Vien- 
na, in  1873,  a  book,  "  The  Work  School  in  the  Common 
School."  Bittmeister  Claussen  Von  Kaas,  of  Denmark, 
travelled  through  Germany  and  delivered  lectures  on 
manual  training,  and  now  there  is  a  considerable  agita- 
tion of  the  subject. 

In  Finland  all  the  country  schools  are  slojd  schools. 

In  1881  the  Legislature  of  Norway  appropriated  $1250 
for  the  support  of  slojd  in  the  schools. 

In  France  a  law  (1882)  makes  manual  training  obliga- 
tory, and  a  school  for  training  teachers — "  Secole  Normale 
Superieure  de  travail  Manuel " — in  which  there  are  about 
fifty  students.  Prof.  G.  Solicis  is  the  chief  supporter  of 
manual  training  in  France. 

In  Sweden,  in  1876,  there  were  eighty  slojd  schools. 
In  1877  the  number  had  increased  to  one  hundred ;  in 
1878,  to  one  hundred  and  thirty ;  in  1879,  to  two  hun- 
dred ;  in  1880,  to  three  hundred ;  in  1881,  to  four  hun- 
dred ;  and  in  1882,  to  five  hundred. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  MANUAL  ELEMENT  IN  EDUCATION.    363 

In  Naas,  in  Sweden,  there  is  a  seminary  for  the  train- 
ing of  slojd  teachers.*  Of  this  seminary  Otto  Salomon  is 
director.  In  the  slojd  schools  small  articles  are  made  for 
use  in  the  house,  kitchen,  on  the  farm,  etc.  The  course 
of  instruction  embraces  one  hundred  models.  The  mate- 
rials for  the  first  series  of  twenty-five  models  cost  about 
40  cents ;  for  the  second  series  of  twenty-five  the  cost  is 
75  cents ;  and  for  the  third  series  of  fifty  the  cost  is  $3.25. 
The  annual  expense  of  the  manual  training  in  a  Swedish 
country  school  is  about  ten  to  eleven  dollars. 

The  technical  and  mechanic  art  or  trade  schools  of 
Europe,  generally,  whether  public  or  private,  do  not 
come  within  the  scope  of  this  work,  since  their  purpose 
is  industrial,  not  educational. 

*  "Four  young  women  have  graduated  from  the  Slojd  Teacher's 
Seminary  at  Naa"s,  Sweden,  and  two  of  them  are  now  engaged  in 
teaching  manual  arts." — Letter  from  John  M.  Ordway,  A.M.,  Chair 
of  Applied  Chemistry  and  Biology,  and  Director  of  Manual  Training, 
Tulane  University  of  Louisiana. 


INDEX. 


A. 

Abstract  ideas  regarded  as  of  more  vital  importance  than  things,  185. 

Adam,  legend  of,  and  the  stick,  157. 

Adams,  Charles  Francis,  Jr.,  arraigns  the  schools  of  Massachusetts  for  au- 
tomatism, 201 ;  declares  that,  in  the  public  schools,  children  are  re- 
garded as  automatons,  etc.,  205. 

Adler,  Prof.  Felix,  declaration  of  [in  note],  that  manual  training  promotes 
rectitude,  142;  unique  educational  enterprise  of,  in  New  York  City, 
336 ;  extracts  from  report  of,  as  to  purposes  of  the  "  model  school,"  338, 
339. 

Age  of  force,  the,  is  passing  away,  299. 

Age  of  science  and  art,  the,  has  begun,  299. 

Agricola,  noted  for  the  practice  of  the  most  austere  virtue,  270 ;  after  great 
services,  was  retired,  270. 

Agriculture,  nearly  pejishes  in  the  Middle  Ages — prevalence  of  famines,  277. 

Agricultural  colleges,  manual  training  in  twelve,  of  the  State,  335. 

Alabama,  Agricultural  and  Mechanical  College  of,  adopts  manual  train- 
ing, 349. 

Alcibiades  kept  riot  his  patriotism  when  he  was  being  wronged,  255. 

Alison,  his  theory  of  the  cause  of  the  decline  of  Rome,  63. 

Altruism,  stability  of  government  depends  upon,  135. 

America,  discovery  of,  the  crowning  aot  of  man's  emancipation  from  the 
gloom  of  the  Dark  Ages,  282 ;  gives  wings  to  hope,  283 ;  startles  the 
people  of  Europe  from  the  deep  sleep  of  a  thousand  years,  283 ;  a 
great  blow  to  prevailing  dogmatisms,  301 ;  completes  the  figure  of  the 
earth,  rendering  it  susceptible  of  intelligent  study,  301. 

America,  early  immigration  to,  consisted  of  Puritans  and  Cavaliers,  Germans, 
Frenchmen,  and  Irishmen,  302  ;  destined  to  become  the  home  of  an  old 
civilization,  302 ;  the  manner  in  which  the  colonists  of  treated  the  natives, 
showed  the  Roman  taint  of  savagery,  302 ;  European  social  abuses  ex- 
aggerated in,  317  ;  the  eyes  of  mankind  rest  upon,  alone,  with  hope,  317. 

Americans,  are  transplanted  Europeans  controlled  by  European  mental  and 
moral  habitudes,  317 ;  will  not  vote  away  their  right  to  vote,  318,  319. 


366  INDEX. 

Anaxagoras,  his  characterization  of  man  as  the  wisest  of  animals  because 
he  has  hands,  152. 

Ancients,  reverence  due  them  for  their  art  triumphs,  73  ;  temples  of,  re- 
mained long  as  instructors  of  succeeding  generations,  73 ;  educational 
theory  of,  contrasted  with  that  of  moderns,  123 ;  ignorance  of,  on  the 
subject  of  physiology,  153 ;  speculative  philosophy  the  only  resource  of, 
153 ;  slow  growth  of,  in  morals,  due  to  the  fact  of  their  neglect  of  the 
education  of  woman,  360  ;  contempt  of,  for  children,  361. 

Anossoff,  a  Russian  general,  experiments  of,  in  the  effort  to  produce  Da- 
mascus steel,  72. 

Antwerp,  Flemish  silk- weavers  of,  flee  to  England  upon  the  sacking  of,  34. 

Apollo,  bronze  statue  of,  at  Rhodes,  47. 

Apprentice  system,  the,  gives  skilled  mechanics  to  England,  181. 

Apprentices  better  educated  than  the  graduates  of  schools  and  colleges, 
239. 

Architecture,  limit  of,  attained  in  Greece  and  Rome,  73. 

Aristocracy,  alliance  of,  with  the  kings,  286. 

Arithmetic,  automatism  in  teaching  it  in  the  schools  of  the  United  States, 
as  shown  by  the  Walton  report,  197;  Colonel  Parker's  declaration  in  re- 
gard to  the  defective  methods  of  instruction  in,  206,  207. 

Arnold,  John,  inventor  of  the  chronometer,  86  ;  his  ingenious  watch,  of  the 
size  of  twopence  and  weight  of  sixpence,  86. 

Art,  its  cosmopolitan  character,  12;  the  product  of  a  sequential  series  of 
steps,  73 ;  the  preservation  of  a  record  of  each  step  essential  to  prog- 
ress, 73 ;  printing  makes  every  invention  in,  the  heritage  of  all  the 
ages,  282 ;  triumphs  due  to  the  laborer,  290 ;  ignored  in  educational 
systems,  320. 

Artisan,  the,  embodies  the  discoveries  of  science  in  things,  13 ;  is  more  de- 
serving of  veneration  than  the  artist,  74 ;  regarded  with  disdain  bj 
statesmen,  lawyers,  litterateurs,  poets,  and  artists,  185;  education  of, 
is  more  scientific  than  that  of  merchants,  lawyers,  judges,  and  legisla- 
tors, 227;  training  of,  is  objective,  relates  to  things,  231;  intuitively 
shrinks  from  the  false,  and  struggles  to  find  the  truth,  231 ;  always  in 
the  advance,  242. 

Artists  more  highly  esteemed  than  civil  engineers,  machinists,  and  artisans, 
185. 

Arts,  the  fine,  not  so  fine  as  the  useful,  74 ;  can  exist  legitimately  only  as 
the  natural  outgrowth  of  the  useful  arts,  275. 

Arts,  the  useful,  finer  than  the  so-called  fine  arts — their  processes  more  in- 
tricate, 74 ;  no  limit  to  their  development  except  the  exhaustion  of  the 
forces  of  nature,  74 ;  neglect  of,  by  all  the  governments  of  the  world 
is  amazing,  176  ;  Plato's  contempt  of,  176 ;  no  instruction  in  given  in 
the  public  schools,  181;  slavery's  brand  of  shame  still  upon,  190;  no 


INDEX.  367 

such  failure  of  the,  as  there  is  of  justice,  227 ;  the  true  measure  of  civili- 
zation, 247 ;  depend  upon  labor,  274 ;  precede  the  fine  arts,  275 ;  unknown 
in  the  Middle  Ages,  277  ;  stagnation  in,  is  the  death  of  civilization,  279. 

Athenians  declared  that  the  Spartans  were  taught  to  steal,  and  the  Spar- 
tans retorted  that  the  best  Athenians  were  invariably  thieves,  255. 

Atkinson,  Edward,  declares  that  the  perfection  of  our  almost  automatic 
mechanism  is  achieved  at  the  cost  not  only  of  the  manual  but  of  the 
mental  development  of  our  men,  201. 

Aurelius,  Marcus,  sublime  moral  teachings  of,  138. 

Austria,  Emperor  of,  has  a  suit  of  clothes  made  from  the  fleece  in,  eleven 
hours,  87 ;  increases  her  debt  each  year,  292. 

Authority,  in  the  Middle  Ages,  chilled  courage,  280. 

Automata,  of  the  ancients — hint  of  modern  automatic  tools  in,  8 ;  of  the 
moderns,  triumphs  of  mechanical  genius,  86. 

Automatism,  of  mind  and  body,  191;  of  mind  promoted  by  the  environ- 
ment of  modern  life,  192;  promotion  of,  by  the  schools,  193;  in  the 
schools  of  Norfolk  County,  Mass.,  as  shown  by  the  Walton  report,  196  ; 
as  shown,  in  the  Walton  report  in  grammar,  in  arithmetic,  in  reading, 
in  penmanship,  in  spelling,  and  in  composition,  197,  198,  199 ;  a  final 
and  conclusive  test  of  the  prevalence  of,  in  the  schools,  204. 


B. 

Babylon,  the  hundred  brazen  gates  of,  55  ;  influence  of  ideas  of,  in  full  force 
in  the  United  States  down  to  the  time  of  the  emancipation  proclamation 
of  President  Lincoln,  190. 

Bacon,  Lord,  the  school  he  wished  for,  2 ;  his  aphorism,  4 ;  his  apothegm 
on  the  sciences,  13;  condemns  the  old  system  of  education,  126;  his 
opinion  of  the  universities,  127 ;  his  proposal  that  a  college  be  estab- 
lished for  the  discovery  of  new  truth,  185 ;  his  proposal  to  bring  the 
mind  into  accord  with  things,  245 ;  foresees  the  kindergarten  and  the 
manual  training  school,  245 ;  celebrated  aphorism  of,  has  had  but  little 
influence  upon  the  methods  of  our  public  schools,  319. 

Bacon,  Roger,  his  daring  prediction  of  mechanical  wonders  to  be  accom- 
plished, 98. 

Ballot,  power  of,  in  the  United  States,  318. 

Baltimore,  Md.,  manual  training  in,  336. 

Bamberger,  Mr.  G.,  Principal  of  the  Workingman's  School,  New  York  City 
— extracts  from  report  of,  on  purposes  of  the  school,  337,  338. 

Barnesville,  0.,  manual  training  in,  336. 

Belfield,Dr.  Henry  H.,  Director  of  the  Chicago  Manual  Training  School,  340 ; 
his  early  appreciation  of  the  mental  value  of  manual  training,  342 ;  ex- 
tracts from  the  inaugural  address  of,  342,  343,  344,  345. 

16 


368  INDEX. 

Bell,  Sir  Charles,  his  great  discovery  of  the  muscular  sense,  146 ;  his  defi- 
nition of  the  office  of  the  sixth  sense,  146. 

Bells,  that  of  Pekin,  China,  47 ;  that  of  Moscow,  47 ;  they  show  an  inti- 
mate knowledge  of  the  founder's  art,  48. 

Bernot,  M.,  inventor  of  file-cutting  machine,  91. 

Bessemer,  Sir  Henry,  his  birth  and  early  training,  162;  his  appearance  in 
London,  a  poor  young  man — his  first  invention,  162 ;  as  young  Glad- 
stone enters  the  Treasury,  he  retires  an  unsuccessful  suitor  for  the  just 
reward  of  genius  and  toil,  163 ;  his  burning  sense  of  outrage,  163 ;  an- 
nouncement of  his  discovery  of  a  new  process  in  steel-making,  164  ;  hia 
declaration  that  he  could  make  steel  at  the  cost  of  iron  received  with 
incredulity,  165;  his  process  of  steel -making  a  complete  success  in 
1860,  165 ;  compared  with  Mr.  Gladstone,  165, 166 ;  description  of  the 
process  that  revolutionized  the  steel  manufacture,  166,  167;  value  of 
process  of,  167  ;  the  government  of  England  slow  in  honoring  him,  168 ; 
comparison  between  the  life  and  services  of,  to  man,  and  those  of  Mr. 
Gladstone  and  Mr.  Disraeli,  168, 169  ;  stands  for  the  new  education,  169. 

Black-walnut,  its  natural  history  studied  in  the  wood-turning  laboratory,  36 ; 
its  structure,  growth,  and  uses,  37  ;  the  poet  Bryant's  great  tree,  37. 

Blatchford,  E.  W.,  President  of  the  Chicago  Manual  Training  School  Asso- 
ciation, 340. 

Blatchford  Literary  Society,  an  organization  of  students  of  the  Chicago 
Manual  Training  School,  342. 

Blow,  Miss  S.  E.,  in  formulating  the  theory  of  the  kindergarten,  describes 
the  method  equally  of  the  savage  and  the  manual  training  school,  218, 
219. 

Board  of  Trade,  of  Chicago,  the  speculative  trades  in  futures  on,  are  fifteen 
times  more  than  the  sales  of  grain  and  provisions,  316. 

Body,  contempt  of  the,  by  the  ancients,  led  to  contempt  of  manual  labor, 
155. 

Book-makers,  the,  writing  the  lives  of  the  old  inventors  in  the  temple  of 
fame,  171. 

Books,  the  sure  promise  of  universal  culture,  283 ;  the  precursor  of  the 
common  school,  283. 

Boston,  the  streets  of,  in  which  patriots  had  struggled  for  liberty,  now 
echoed  the  groans  of  the  slave,  305  ;  manual  training  in,  336. 

Boy,  the  civilized,  is  not  trained  in  school  for  the  actual  duties  of  life,  181 ; 
is  taught  many  theories,  but  not  required  to  put  any  of  them  in  prac- 
tice, 181 ;  is  in  danger  of  the  penitentiary  until  he  learns  a  trade  or 
profession,  181,182. 

Boys,  ninety-seven  in  a  hundred,  who  graduate  from  the  public  schools  and 
embark  in  mercantile  pursuits,  fail,  227. 

Brain,  the,  its  absorbing  and  expressing  powers — diagram  illustrating,  193  ; 


INDEX.  369 

the  healthy  education  of,  consists  in  giving  to  the  expressing  side  power 
equal  to  that  of  the  absorbing  side,  193,  194;  the  functions  of  the  ab- 
sorbing side  extended,  while  those  of  the  expressing  side  are  restrict- 
ed— diagram  illustrating,  194;  functions  of  the  expressing  side  of,  in- 
creased by  adding  drawing  and  the  manual  arts,  195. 

Bramah,  Joseph,  inventor  of  automatic  tools,  84. 

Breighton  helps  to  solve  the  steam-power  problem,  15. 

Bridge,  the  first  iron,  across  the  Severn,  one  hundred  years  old,  but  likely 
to  last  for  centuries,  241. 

Bridgman,  Laura,  used  the  finger  alphabet  in  her  dreams,  150. 

Brindley,  James,  sketch  of  the  life  of,  172;  a  common  laborer  —  a  mill- 
wright's apprentice — a  man  of  honor — an  illiterate,  but  a  genius  and  an 
originator  of  great  canal  enterprises,  172-175  ;  the  engineer  of  the  Duke 
of  Bridgewater,  173 ;  his  "  castle  in  the  air  "  and  "  river  hung  in  the 
air,"  173 ;  his  obstinacy,  poverty,  and  poor  pay  for  splendid  services  of 
which  he  was  robbed  by  the  duke,  174 ;  his  life  and  career  typical  of  a 
score  of  biographies  presented  in  Mr.  Smiles's  "  Lives  of  the  Engineers," 
175. 

Bronze,  castings  of,  in  the  ruins  of  Egypt  and  Greece,  46. 

Brooklyn  Bridge,  illustrates  the  necessity  of  practical  training  for  the  civil 
engineer,  97. 

Brown,  John,  Captain,  in  the  presence  of  his  exultant  but  half -terrified 
captors,  235  ;  defying  the  constitution,  the  laws,  and  public  sentiment  in 
the  interest  of  the  cause  of  justice,  236. 

Bruno,  his  fate,  condemned  by  the  Inquisition  and  burned  as  a  heretic, 
178;  persecution  of,  a  link  in  the  chain  of  progress,  283. 

Buckle,  Henry  Thomas,  his  testimony  to  the  practical  uses  of  imagination, 
38 ;  his  scathing  arraignment  of  English  statesmen  and  legislators, 
160;  his  declaration  that  the  best  English  laws  are  those  by  which 
former  laws  are  repealed,  187;  his  declaration  in  regard  to  the  obsti- 
nacy and  stupidity  of  English  legislators,  242. 

Budget,  the  European,  shows  that  the  standing  armies  are  the  overshadow- 
ing feature  of  the  situation,  286 ;  the  portion  of,  that  goes  to  the  main- 
tenance of  the  standing  armies,  287. 

Burgos,  manufactures  of,  destroyed  by  the  expulsion  of  the  Moors  from 
Spain,  279. 

C. 

Caesar  preferred  to  Cato,  whose  patriotism  was  above  question,  270 ;  com- 
mentaries of,  in  all  the  world's  universities,  271. 

Caligula,  his  pleasure  in  witnessing  the  countenances  of  dying  gladiators, 
138. 

Camillus  honored  in  the  early  days  of  Rome,  270. 


370  INDEX. 

Carlyle,  his  apostrophe  to  tools,  7. 

Carpenter's  laboratory,  class  of  students  at  the  blackboard  in,  discussing 
the  history  and  nature  of  certain  woods,  21 ;  working  drawings  of  the 
lesson  put  on  the  black-board  by  the  instructor  in,  25  ;  parts  of  the  les- 
son executed  by  the  instructor  in,  25  ;  new  tools  introduced,  and  their 
care  and  use  explained,  25 ;  the  students  at  their  benches  in,  mak- 
ing things,  as  busy  as  bees,  26 ;  a  call  to  order  and  a  solution  of  the 
main  problem  of  the  day's  lesson,  26 ;  a  tenon  too  large  for  its  mor- 
tise, 29. 

Caste,  a  tendency  to,  disclosed  in  all  history,  248  ;  illustration  of,  the  earli- 
est— the  chief  of  the  brawny  arm,  248  ;  illustrations  of,  in  savage  and 
half-civilized  communities,  248,  249 ;  in  Egypt — in  India,  249  ;  in  the 
United  States,  307. 

Castile,  manufactures  of,  destroyed  by  the  expulsion  of  the  Moors  from 
Spain,  279. 

Castle  of  the  Middle  Ages,  the  home  of  music  and  chivalry,  276. 

Cato  a  type  of  Roman  persistence  in  the  path  of  conquest,  260 ;  patriotism 
and  virtue  of,  270. 

Centennial  Exposition,  exhibit  of  models  of  tool-practice  in  the  Imperial 
Technical  School,  Moscow,  Russia,  at  the,  325. 

Charcoal,  the  forests  of  England  swept  away  to  provide  it  for  the  smith's 
and  smelter's  fires,  in  the  early  time,  63. 

Charlemagne,  attempt  of,  to  reconstruct  a  worn-out  civilization,  276 ;  neg- 
lect of  the  education  of  the  people  the  cause  of  the  failure  of,  276. 

Chatham,  Lord,  declaration  of,  that  the  American  colonies  had  no  right  to 
make  a  nail  or  a  horseshoe,  203. 

Chicago,  comparison  of,  with  ancient  Rome,  138. 

Chicago  Manual  Training  School,  description  of  building,  1 ;  its  main  pur- 
pose intellectual  development,  3  ;  theory  of,  4 ;  engine-room  of,  14 ;  en- 
gine of,  doing  duty  as  a  school-master,  14 ;  an  epitome  of,  in  the  engine- 
room,  15  ;  its  purpose  not  to  make  mechanics,  but  men,  38;  conditions 
of  admission  to,  106 ;  detail  of  questions  used  in  examination  of  candi- 
dates for  first  class  in,  106-110;  curriculum  of,  110,  111;  optional 
studies  of,  111;  blending  of  manual  and  mental  instruction  in,  111; 
missionary  character  of ,  1 1 1 ;  the  only  independent  educational  institu- 
tion of  the  kind  in  the  world,  339 ;  owes  its  origin  entirely  to  laymen, 
339 ;  established  by  an  association  of  merchants,  manufacturers,  and 
bankers,  339,  340;  incorporated  April  11,  1883,340;  corner-stone  of, 
laid  September  24,  1883,  340;  opened  February  4,  1884,  340;  officers 
and  trustees  of  association  of,  340 ;  object  of,  mental  and  manual  cult- 
ure, 341 ;  equipment  of,  341 ;  library  of,  341 ;  Dr.  Henry  H.  Belfield  di- 
rector of,  342. 
Chicago  Tribune,  criticism  of  the  methods  of  the  public  schools  by  the, 


INDEX.  371 

340 ;  columns  of,  opened  to  the  author,  340;  effect  of  advocacy  of  man- 
ual training  by  the,  340. 

Child,  the,  becomes  father  of  the  man,  in  the  cradle,  the  nursery,  and  at 
the  fireside,  359  ;  contempt  of,  by  the  ancients,  361. 

Chipping,  filing,  and  fitting  laboratory,  88 ;  course  in  ti:e,  88 ;  the  ante- 
room to  the  machine-tool  laboratory,  88. 

Christian  religion,  the,  its  failure  to  save  Rome,  140. 

Cicero,  his  doctrine  of  the  universal  brotherhood  of  man,  139 ;  forecasts  the 
doom  of  the  Roman  Republic,  but  has  no  remedy  for  the  public  ills  to 
propose,  268  ;  without  moral  courage,  269. 

Cincinnatus  found  at  the  plough,  264. 

Cities,  rapid  concentration  of  population  in,  137 ;  plague-spots  on  the  body 
politic,  137 ;  dominated  by  selfishness,  137 ;  statistics  of  increase  of 
population  in,  307,  308 ;  the  chief  sources  of  societary  disturbances, 
308. 

City,  the  modern,  the  despair  of  the  political  economist,  137 ;  the  centre  of 
vice,  137;  pen-picture  of  its  vices  and  crimes,  140;  picture  of  vice  in, 
308. 

City  of  New  York,  College  of,  manual  training  in,  346 ;  first  report  of  the 
industrial  educational  association  of,  gives  a  list  of  thirty-one  schools 
in,  where  industrial  education  is  furnished  (note),  346. 

Civil  engineer,  the  modern,  must  be  familiar  with  all  the  processes  of  the 
machine-tool  shop,  97 ;  his  works  may  be  amended,  but  never  repealed, 
187;  more  competent  than  the  railway  president,  the  lawyer,  the  judge, 
or  the  legislator,  225  ;  trained  in  things,  225. 

Civilization,  progress  of,  depends  upon  progress  in  invention  and  discovery, 
65 ;  a  growth  from  the  state  of  savagery,  131 ;  evils  of,  flow  from  men- 
tal development  wanting  the  element  of  rectitude,  132;  contrast  pre- 
sented by  that  of  Italy  in  the  fifteenth  century,  and  that  of  America  in 
the  nineteenth,  234 ;  difference  between,  and  barbarism,  244 ;  the  use- 
ful arts  the  true  measure  of,  247 ;  the  product  of  education,  248 ;  of 
Greece  sprung  from  mythology  and  ended  in  anarchy,  254 ;  languishes 
in  an  atmosphere  of  injustice,  274 ;  the  trinity  upon  which  it  rests  is 
justice,  the  useful  arts,  and  labor,  274 ;  American,  has  not  borne  new 
social  fruits,  317. 

Clark,  John  S.,  his  elaborate  exposition  of  the  defects  of  existing  educa- 
tional methods,  193, 194, 195. 

Claudius,  under  the  favor  of,  Seneca  amassed  a  vast  fortune,  269. 

Clement,  Joseph,  great  English  inventor  of  the  eighteenth  century,  84 ;  his 
two  improvements  in  the  slide  -  rest,  and  the  medals  he  received  for 
them,  92. 

Cleveland,  0.,  manual  training  in,  336. 

Coal,  subject  of  production,  cost,  demand,  and  supply  discussed  in  forging 


372  INDEX. 

laboratory,  62 ;  history  of  application  of,  to  useful  arts,  63 ;  prejudice 
against  use  of  mineral,  in  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century,  64 ; 
smelting  with  mineral,  successfully  introduced  in  England  in  1766,  66. 

Coalbrookdale  Iron-works,  mineral  coal  first  used  at,  for  smelting  purposes, 
65,  66. 

Columbus,  in  proving  that  the  world  is  round,  frees  mankind,  282 ;  sounds 
the  death-knell  of  intellectual  slavery,  282,  283. 

Comenius,  the  school  he  struggled  in  vain  to  establish,  2 ;  his  theory  of 
learning  by  doing,  13;  condemns  the  old  system  of  education,  126; 
his  definition  of  education,  127;  foresees  the  kindergarten  and  the 
manual  training  school,  245. 

Commercial  Club,  the,  founds  the  Chicago  Manual  Training  School,  2 ;  guar- 
antees $100,000  for  its  support,  3;  meeting  of,  March  25, 1882,  340. 

Commerce,  early,  of  America,  so  insignificant  that  in  1784  eight  bales  of 
cotton  shipped  from  South  Carolina  were  seized  by  the  custom  authori- 
ties of  England  on  the  ground  that  so  large  a  quantity  could  not  have 
been  produced  in  the  United  States,  203. 

Common-school  system  of  the  United  States,  glaring  defects  of,  shown  by 
the  Walton  report,  197,  198,  199. 

Composition,  automatism  in  teaching,  in  the  schools  of  the  United  States, 
as  shown  by  the  Walton  report,  199. 

Compton,  Prof.  Alfred  G.,  on  the  exacting  nature  of  the  demands  made 
upon  instructors  by  the  new  education,  346. 

Concrete,  progress  can  find  expression  only  in  the,  151,152;  a  lie  always 
hideous  in  the,  224. 

Connecticut,  manual  training  in  State  Normal  School,  336 ;  legislature  of, 
adopts  manual  training  as  part  of  the  course  of  public  instruction,  354. 

Contempt,  in  the  Middle  Ages,  withered  hope,  280. 

Convent,  of  the  Middle  Ages,  the  home  of  religion  and  of  art,  276. 

Cook  County  Normal  School,  111.,  manual  training  in,  336. 

Cooley,  Lieut.  Mortimer  E.,  letter  of,  to  the  Author  on  effects  of  manual 
training  in  the  University  of  Michigan,  357. 

Cordova  the  abode  of  wealth,  learning,  refinement,  and  the  arts,  278. 

Corporate  power,  unduly  promoted  by  reckless  legislation  on  the  subject  of 
land  in  the  United  States,  314. 

Corporations,  a  creation  of  yesterday,  the  product  of  steam,  314;  almost  as 
indestructible  as  landed  estates,  314;  men  trained  from  generation  to 
generation  to  the  care  of,  314. 

Cort,  Henry,  an  English  inventor  of  the  eighteenth  century,  84 ;  experi- 
ments of,  with  a  view  to  the  improvement  of  English  iron,  115. 

Cotton-gin,  the,  trebled  the  value  of  the  cotton-fields  of  the  South,  160. 

Cotton  Exchange  of  New  York,  speculative  trades  in  futures  on,  thirty 
times  more  than  the  actual  cotton  sales,  316. 


INDEX.  373 

Crane,  R.  T.,  Vice-President  of  the  Chicago  Manual  Training  School  Asso- 
ciation, 340. 

Cranege,  the  Brothers,  inventors  of  the  reverberatory  furnace,  66. 

Crerar,  John,  Trustee  of  the  Chicago  Manual  Training  School  Association, 
340. 

Crusaders,  their  astonishment  at  the  splendors  of  Constantinople,  281 ;  they 
expected  to  meet  with  treachery  and  cruelty — they  found  chivalry  and 
high  culture,  281 ;  they  returned  to  Europe  relieved  of  many  illusions, 
281,  282. 

Crusades,  the,  pitiful  and  prolific  of  horrors  as  they  were,  shed  a  great 
light  upon  Europe,  281 ;  brought  the  men  of  the  West  face  to  face 
with  a  progressive  civilization,  281. 

D. 

Daedalus,  invention  of  turning  ascribed  to,  by  the  Greeks,  33. 

Damascus  blades,  the  most  signal  triumph  of  the  art  of  the  smelter  and  the 
smith,  72  ;  the  material  of  which  they  were  made,  and  their  temper,  72 ; 
first  encountered  by  Europeans  during  the  Crusades,  72 ;  triumphs  of 
genius  not  less  pronounced  than  the  Athena  of  Phidias,  74. 

Dark  Ages,  the  shame  of,  caused  by  the  neglect  of  the  useful  arts,  64 ; 
maxims  of  Machiavelli  explain  the  fact  of  the  existence  of,  280 ;  gloom 
of,  dispelled  by  the  discovery  of  America,  282. 

Darwin,  Charles,  declares  that  a  complex  train  of  thought  cannot  be  car- 
ried on  without  the  aid  of  words,  149;  law  of  reversion  of,  in  operation 
during  the  decay  of  the  Roman  civilization,  271. 

Da  Vinci,  Leonardo,  took  up  the  work  of  Archimedes,  and  the  science  of 
mechanics  made  progress,  283. 

De  Caus,  helps  to  solve  the  steam-power  problem,  15. 

Delia  Vos,  M.  Victor,  Director  of  the  Imperial  Technical  School,  Moscow, 
121 ;  testimony  of,  as  to  value  of  manual  training,  121 ;  author  of  the 
laboratory  process  of  tool  instruction,  325. 

Democratic  idea,  the,  not  new  when  adopted  in  America,  303. 

Democratic  principle,  in  the  United  States  Government,  does  not  prevent 
class  distinctions,  307. 

Denmark  appropriates  money  for  teaching  hand-cunning  in  the  schools,  362. 

Denver  (Col.)  University,  manual  training  in,  349. 

Dickens,  Charles,  his  pen-picture  of  "  Tom-all-alones  " — philosophy  of,  309. 

Dinwiddie,  Prof.  H.  H.,  his  account  of  the  manner  in  which  the  Agricultu- 
ral and  Mechanical  College  of  Texas  was  revolutionized  in  the  interest 
of  manual  training,  353. 

Disasters,  mercantile  and  other,  show  that  business  is  done  by  the  "  rule 
of  thumb,"  214. 

Disraeli  (Lord  Beaconsfield),  his  tribute  to  the  value  of  the  imagination  as 


874  INDEX. 

a  useful  quality,  38 ;  his  alternations  of  political  power  with  Mr.  Glad- 
stone—  from  Liberalism  to  Toryism  an  easy  transition,  164;  England 
heaps  honors  upon  him  while  it  neglects  Mr.  Bessemer,  168;  compari- 
son between  the  life  and  services  of,  to  man,  and  those  of  Sir  Henry 
Bessemer,  169. 

Doane,  John  W.,  Trustee  of  the  Chicago  Manual  Training  School  Associa- 
tion, 340. 

Dogmatist,  the,  no  place  for,  in  the  modern  order  of  things,  124. 

Domestic  economy  made  a  department  of  the  Iowa  Agricultural  College, 
354 ;  made  part  of  the  curriculum  of  the  Le  Moyne  Normal  Institute, 
356. 

Drawing,  thoroughness  of  training  in,  16 ;  definition  of,  16 ;  sketches  of 
certain  geometric  forms,  17;  working  drawings,  pictorial  drawings,  and 
designs  applied  to  industrial  art,  18;  its  aesthetic  element,  18;  geome- 
try its  basis,  examples  of,  18;  from  objects  in  the  school  laboratories, 
19 ;  value  of,  as  an  educational  agency,  19 ;  language  of,  common  to  all 
draughtsmen — pen-picture  of  class  in,  20 ;  the  first  step  of  expression, 
208. 

Drayton,  W.  Heyward,  historical  sketch  of  origin  of  manual  training  in 
Girard  College  by,  347,  348,  349. 

Dudley,  Dud,  inventor  of  machinery  for  the  application  of  mineral  coal 
to  smelting  purposes,  64 ;  sketch  of  career  of,  64,  65 ;  combinations 
against,  by  the  charcoal  iron-masters,  64,  65 ;  furnaces  of,  destroyed  by 
mobs,  and  their  owner  reduced  to  beggary  and  driven  to  prison,  64,  65. 

Dun,  R.  G.,  &  Co.,  statistics  of,  in  relation  to  commercial  failures,  211. 

E. 

Ear  not  a  more  important  organ  than  the  hand  because  situated  nearer  the 
brain,  154. 

Eau  Claire,  Wis.,  manual  training  in,  336. 

Edict  of  Nantes,  revocation  of,  drove  artisans  to  England,  34. 

Education,  the  philosopher's  stone  in,  2;  laying  the  foundation  of,  in  labor, 
3 ;  the  power  to  do  some  useful  thing  the  last  analysis  of,  12  ;  definition 
of,  12  ;  confined  to  abstractions,  in  the  past,  13  ;  the  new — claims  made 
in  its  behalf,  105 ;  universal,  a  modern  idea,  123  ;  difference  in  systems 
of,  constitutes  difference  between  ancient  and  modern  civilizations,  123, 
124 ;  every  child  entitled  to  receive,  124  ;  certain  fundamentals  of,  upon 
which  all  are  agreed,  125  ;  Rousseau's  definition  of,  125 ;  begins  at  birth 
and  continues  to  the  end  of  life,  126;  Froebel's  definition  of,  126;  old 
system  of,  condemned  by  Bacon,  Comenius,  Rousseau,  Pestalozzi,  and 
Froebel,  126  ;  of  woman  more  important  than  that  of  man,  128  ;  develops 
innate  mental  qualities  and  forms  character,  130;  all,  is  both  mental 
and  moral,  133  ;  any  system  of,  that  does  not  produce  altruism  is  vicious, 


INDEX.  375 

136  ;  first  step  in,  to  eliminate  selfishness  and  put  rectitude  in  its  place, 
136 ;  a  system  of,  consisting  exclusively  of  mental  exercises,  promotes 
selfishness,  141 ;  methods  of,  controlled  by  the  Classicism  of  the  Re- 
naissance, 154;  of  the  hands  as  well  as  the  brain  necessary,  172;  the 
old,  designed  to  make  lawyers,  doctors,  priests,  statesmen,  litterateurs, 
and  poets,  179 ;  that  is  not  practical,  in  the  Age  of  Steel,  is  nothing,  179 ; 
not  broad  enough  on  the  expressing  side  of  the  brain,  194  ;  illustrations 
of  defects  of,  shown  by  the  Walton  Report,  196,  197,  198,  199;  in  ex- 
isting systems  of,  the  memory  is  cultivated  while  the  reason  is  allowed 
to  slumber,  200;  defective  methods  of,  result  in  vast  mercantile  and 
railway  disasters,  215  ;  defective  morally,  since  the  truth  is  to  be  found 
only  in  things,  224  ;  the  New  England  system  of,  very  defective;  but  to 
it  the  country  owes  the  quality  of  its  civilization,  235;  in  South  Caro- 
lina the  monopoly  of  a  class,  235 ;  a  scientific  system  of,  would  have 
averted  the  War  of  Rebellion  in  the  United  States,  and  kept  down  the 
debt  of  England,  237 ;  why  popular,  is  provided  for  by  the  State,  237 ; 
the  sole  bulwark  of  the  State,  238 ;  the  best  is  th«  cheapest,  239 ;  of 
New  England  does  not  produce  great  lawyers,  great  judges,  or  great 
legislators,  239 ;  exclusively  mental,  stops  far  short  of  the  objective 
point  of  true,  243 ;  the  last  analysis  of,  is  art,  243 ;  any  system  of, 
which  separates  ideas  and  things,  is  radically  defective,  244 ;  the  object 
of,  is  the  generation  of  power,  244 ;  the  system  of,  which  does  not 
teach  the  application  of  facts  to  things,  is  unscientific,  245 ;  among  the 
ancients,  was  confined  to  a  small  class,  and  consisted  of  selfish  maxims 
for  the  government  of  the  many,  253;  of  the  Greeks  responsible  for 
the  destruction  of  Greek  civilization,  256;  defects  of  the  Roman,  261 ; 
Roman,  deified  selfishness  and  so  realized  its  last  analysis — total  de- 
pravity, 263;  a  false  system  of,  wrecks  the  Roman  civilization,  273; 
scientific,  essential  to  the  salvation  of  the  trinity  upon  which  civiliza- 
tion rests,  274  ;  how  to  make  it  universal  in  Europe,  288,  289 ;  possible 
only  in  Europe  through  the  disbandment  of  the  standing  armies,  291 ; 
in  Germany,  has  taught  the  people  to  hate  standing  armies,  294,  295 ; 
is  causing  the  emigration  of  Germany's  best  citizens,  298;  is  the 
arch-revolutionist  whose  march  is  irresistible,  2C8  ;  the  new,  will  come 
in  as  the  standing  armies  go  out,  300;  had  made  little  progress  at 
the  time  of  the  organization  of  civil  society  in  America,  303 ;  the  sys- 
tem of,  under  which  the  kings  and  ruling  classes  of  Europe  had  been 
trained  to  selfishness,  cruelty,  and  injustice,  put  into  the  New  England 
common  schools,  303 ;  sordid  view  of,  generally  held  in  the  rural  dis- 
tricts of  New  England,  304 ;  Herbert  Spencer's  view  of  the  prevailing 
methods  of,  304 ;  positive  ill  effects  of  the  prevailing  methods  of,  304, 
305 ;  a  false  system  of,  in  the  United  States,  led  to  political  incongrui- 
ties of  the  grossest  character,  305  ;  complete  failure  of,  to  promote  recti- 

16* 


876  INDEX. 

tude,  305 ;  defects  of  system  of,  in  the  United  States,  shown  by  the  ig- 
norance and  crimes  of  legislators,  311 ;  may  be  made  universal  through 
the  ballot,  318;  all  property  may  be  taken  for,  by  the  ballot,  318; 
American,  is  scant  in  quantity  and  poor  in  quality,  319;  no  radical 
change  in  methods  of,  for  3000  years.  319;  a  complete  revolution  in, 
essential  to  social  reform,  321 ;  must  begin  with  the  child  and  be  di- 
rected by  the  mother,  359. 

Edward  III.  of  England  uses  the  smiths  as  military  engineers  at  the  siege 
of  Berwick,  72. 

Egypt,  how  the  castes  of,  arose,  249 ;  progress  of  the  civilization  of,  249 ; 
civilization  of,  the  product  of  education,  250 ;  selfishness  the  basis  of  the 
system  of  education  of,  250 ;  wealth,  commerce,  and  military  and  naval 
power  of,  250;  learning  of,  251 ;  luxury  of,  251 ;  conquered  by  Persia, 
251,  252;  no  provision  in,  for  the  mental  or  moral  training  of  woman, 
360. 

Electricity,  must  be  "harnessed"  at  the  forge  and  in  the  shop  to  enable  it 
to  do  its  work,  170. 

Elizabeth,  Queen  of  England,  use  of  iron  by,  to  defeat  the  Spanish  Armada, 
61. 

Emerson,  his  declaration  that  Napoleon  was  typical  of  the  modern  man, 
134;  his  observation  that  during  the  Crusades  "the  banker  with  his 
seven  per  cent,  drove  the  earl  out  of  his  castle,"  282. 

Emigrant,  the  poor,  withdraws  the  support  of  his  brawny  arm  from  the 
fatherland,  290. 

Emigration,  social  questions  cannot  much  longer  be  settled  by,  299. 

Empire,  art  of  mechanism  greatest  of  modern  times,  61. 

England,  sketch  of  the  history  of  the  early  iron  manufacture  of,  63  ;  decline 
of  the  iron  industry  of,  during  the  seventeenth  century,  65;  the  people 
of,  import  their  pots  and  kettles,  65  ;  workshops  of,  originate  great  inven- 
tions during  the  period  1740-1840, 115;  apprentices  of,  become  learned 
men,  115;  material  condition  of,  250  years  ago — its  poverty,  158,  159; 
civilization  and  transformation  of  —  how  accomplished,  159;  studded 
with  workshops,  filled  with  automatic  machines  through  the  apprentice 
system,  181 ;  owes  to  the  French  and  Flemish  immigrants  her  indus- 
trial arts  and  much  of  the  most  valuable  life-blood  of  her  modern  raco, 
185  ;  constitution  of,  grew  out  of  the  feudal  system,  190 ;  safer  to  shoot 
a  man  than  a  hare  in,  190;  school  system  of,  estimated  by  results,  inde- 
scribably poor,  224 ;  a  scientific  system  of  education  in,  would  have 
averted  wars  and  kept  down  the  national  debt  of,  237 ;  criminal  laws 
of,  241 ;  draws  from  her  people  a  larger  per  capita  revenue  than  any  na- 
tion of  Europe,  293 ;  has  nearly  reached  the  limit  of  the  power  of  her 
people  to  pay  taxes,  293 ;  land  system  of — its  terrible  effect  upon  the 
English,  Scotch,  and  Irish,  311. 


INDEX.  377 

English  history,  the  great  names  in — the  names  without  which  there  would 
have  been  no  English  history,  175. 

Enterprise,  in  the  Middle  Ages,  the  slave  of  superstition  and  ignorance,  2*77. 

Epictetus,  lofty  patriotism  of,  139. 

Europe,  face  of,  and  civilization  of,  changed  during  the  Crusades,  282 ; 
growth  of  the  middle  class  of,  282 ;  the  artisan  became  a  factor  in  the 
social  problem  of,  282  ;  art  treasures  of,  destined  to  follow  in  the  track 
of  her  fleeing  population,  290;  she  may  restore  to  productive  employ- 
ments three  millions  of  men,  298  ;  she  may  place  at  the  disposal  of  her 
educators  seven  hundred  million  dollars  per  annum,  instead  of  seventy 
million  dollars,  as  at  present,  298 ;  she  may  extinguish  her  national 
debts  in  fifty-four  years,  299 ;  progress  in,  previous  to  the  discovery  of 
America,  301,  302. 

Ewing,  Mrs.  Emma  P.,  Dean  of  the  Domestic  Economy  Department  of  the 
Iowa  Agricultural  College,  355 ;  on  the  importance  of  the  study  of  do- 
mestic economy,  355,  356. 

Expression,  power  of,  quite  as  important  as  that  of  absorption,  208 ;  sus- 
ceptible of  being  made  clear  only  in  things,  208. 

Eye,  not  a  more  important  organ  than  the  hand,  because  it  is  situated  nearer 
the  brain,  154. 

F. 

Fail-bank,  N.  K.,  Trustee  of  the  Chicago  Manual  Training  School  Associa- 
tion, 340. 

Faneuil  Hall,  slavery  justified  in,  305. 

Feudalism  emasculated  human  energy,  277 ;  the  ruin  of,  set  thousands  of 
serfs  free,  286. 

Field,  Marshall,  Treasurer  of  the  Chicago  Manual  Training  School  Associa- 
tion, 340. 

File,  the,  older  than  history,  dating  back  to  the  Greek  mythological  period, 
91 ;  of  the  Swiss  watch-makers,  91 ;  dexterity  of  the  hand-working  cut- 
ter of,  91 ;  invention  of  file-cutting  machine  in  1859,  91. 

Finland,  all  the  schools  of,  give  instruction  in  hand-cunning,  362. 

Fire,  legend  in  regard  to  its  discovery,  62. 

Foley,  Thomas,  on  the  excellence  of  the  laboratory  methods  of  instruction, 
217,  218. 

Force,  new  elements  of,  to  be  discovered  and  applied  to  the  needs  of  man, 
180. 

Forging,  laboratory  of,  58 ;  pen-picture  of  a  class  of  students  in,  61 ;  story 
of  the  origin  of  the  Turkish  Empire  related  by  the  instructor  in,  61 ; 
the  management  of  the  forge  fires  in,  62 ;  lesson  in,  on  the  black-board 
and  at  the  forges,  in  detail,  66 ;  the  instructor  in,  at  the  forge,  69 ; 
questions  by  the  students  in,  69 ;  the  school-room  converted  into  a 


378  INDEX. 

smithy  which  resounds  with  the  clang  of  sledges,  69,  70;  healthful  ef- 
fects of  the  exercise — the  anvil  chorus,  70 ;  the  tests  of  merit  in,  ap- 
plied, 75 ;  the  instructor  in,  gives  a  lecture  on  the  steam-hammer,  75 ; 
extent  of  the  course  in,  77. 

Founding,  laboratory  of,  45 ;  history  of  the  art  of,  46 ;  first  applied  to 
bronze,  46 ;  lesson  of  the  day,  casting  a  pulley,  48 ;  the  process  in  de- 
tail, 51 ;  pen-picture  of  the  students  pouring  the  steaming  metal  into 
moulds,  52. 

France,  permanently  weakened  by  the  increase  of  her  national  debt,  292; 
debt,  statement  of — what  the  war  with  Germany  cost  her,  292 ;  cannot 
double  her  debt  again  and  make  her  people  pay  interest  on  it,  293 ;  a 
law  of,  makes  manual  training  obligatory,  362 ;  supports  a  school  for 
training  teachers  of  manual  training,  362 ;  Prof.  G.  Solicis  the  chief 
supporter  of  manual  training  in,  362. 

Franklin,  the  famous  selfish  maxims  of,  305. 

Froebel,  the  school  he  struggled  in  vain  to  establish,  2 ;  first  applies  Rous- 
seau's ideas  to  school  life,  126;  his  definition  of  education,  126;  con- 
demns the  old  system  of  education,  126;  a  character  of,  127;  his  dis- 
covery of  the  superior  fitness  of  woman  for  the  office  of  teacher,  127, 
128  ;  foresees  the  manual  training  school,  245 ;  it  was  reserved  for  him 
to  rescue  woman  from  the  scorn,  of  the  ages,  361. 

Fuller,  William  A.,  Secretary  of  the  Chicago  Manual  Training  School  Asso- 
ciation, 340. 

Fulton,  Robert,  an  American  inventor,  84. 

G. 

Galileo,  persecution  of,  for  his  great  discovery,  177,  178  ;  persecutors  of,  be- 
lieved and  trembled,  283. 

Gallon,  Francis,  declaration  of,  that  brain  without  heart  is  insufficient  to 
achieve  eminence,  134 ;  his  testimony  to  the  great  value  of  artisan  im- 
migration, and  the  worthless  character  of  political  refugees,  186;  his 
neglect  of  the  artisan  class  in  his  speculations  on  the  subject  of  the 
science  of  life,  186,  187 ;  reason  of  his  neglect  of  the  artisan  class 
stated  by  Horace  Mann — the  influence  of  slavery,  188. 

George  III.  an  expert  wood-turner,  34 ;  gives  John  Arnold  five  hundred 
guineas  for  a  miniature  watch,  86. 

Germanicus  noted  for  the  highest  public  virtue,  270 ;  after  great  services, 
is  exiled  and  poisoned,  270. 

Germany,  Emperor  of,  experience  of,  in  a  needle  factory,  illustrative  of  the 
delicacy  of  mechanical  operations,  240. 

Germany,  foundation  of  her  educational  system,  291,  292;  superior  training 
of  her  people  enabled  her  to  humiliate  France,  292 ;  freedom  from  debt 
of,  the  significant  feature  of  the  European  situation,  292 ;  low  rate  of 


INDEX.  379 

taxation  in,  292 ;  weakness  of,  through  emigration,  293 ;  the  educated 
subject  of,  has  become  a  thoughtful  citizen,  who  rebels  against  the 
standing  arm}',  and  flees  from  it,  293,  294 ;  high  value  of  citizenship  of, 
294  ;  citizenship  freely  abandoned,  because  the  educated  German  re- 
volts at  the  standing  army,  294  ;  the  military  records  of,  show  the  cause 
of  German  emigration  to  be  disgust  of  the  policy  of  international  hate, 
295 ;  increase  in  the  number  of  military  delinquents  in,  is  the  meas- 
ure of  the  growth  of  German  intelligence,  296 ;  the  chief  power  of,  be- 
comes her  chief  weakness,  296;  cannot  recoup  her  losses  to  America 
through  gains  from  neighboring  countries,  on  account  of  the  policy  of 
international  hate,  296,  297 ;  losing  the  flower  of  her  population — the 
strong — the  weaklings,  the  paupers,  the  aged,  and  the  infirm  remain, 
297 ;  is  growing  weaker  each  year,  297 ;  agitation  on  the  subject  of 
manual  training  in,  362. 

Gibbon  on  the  wealth  of  the  Saracens  in  Spain,  279. 

Girard  College,  manual  training  in,  347 ;  Dr.  Runkle's  influence  in  pro- 
moting the  adoption  of  manual  training  in,  348. 

Gladiatorial  games,  atrocities  of,  in  Rome,  contrasted  with  the  sublime  pre- 
cepts of  Seneca,  Plutarch,  and  Marcus  Aurelius,  138  ;  extent  of  slaugh- 
ter of  animals  at  their  celebration,  138. 

Gladstone,  William  Ewart,  political  power  and  popularity  of,  161;  enters 
upon  his  long  official  career  as  young  Henry  Bessemer  retires  from  the 
Stamp-office  without  his  just  reward,  163 ;  a  great  orator,  and  a  great 
financier,  a  talker,  a  maker  of  laws  and  treaties,  constantly  in  the  pub- 
lic eye,  163;  in  office  and  out  of  office,  163,  164;  from  Toryism  to  Lib- 
eralism— an  easy  transition,  164 ;  compared  with  Sir  Henry  Bessemer, 
165,  166;  England  heaps  honors  upon  him  while  she  neglects  Mr.  Bes- 
semer, 168;  comparison  of  the  life  and  services  of,  to  man,  with  those 
of  Mr.  Bessemer,  169  ;  stands  for  the  old  system  of  education,  169  ;  ad- 
mission of,  that  the  great  mechanics  of  England  had  no  aid  from  the 
government,  175. 

Gold,  once  the  king  of  metals,  surrenders  its  sceptre  to  iron,  124. 

Goss,  William  F.  M.,  his  exposition  of  the  methods  of  the  manual  training 
school  in  detail,  219,  220,  221,  222;  pronounced  success  of  the  Manual 
Training  Department  of  Purdue  University,  under  directorship  of,  335. 

Grammar,  automatism  in  teaching,  in  the  common  schools  of  the  United 
States,  as  shown  in  the  Walton  report,  197  ;  criticism  of  Colonel  Par- 
ker on  methods  of  instruction  in,  206. 

Great  Powers  of  Europe  all  hampered  by  great  debts,  292. 

Greece,  Egypt  the  University  of,  251 ;  every  intellectual  Greek  made  a  voy- 
age to  Egypt,  251;  the  destiny  of,  was  controlled  by  renegades — there 
was  disloyalty  in  every  camp,  a  traitor  in  every  army,  and  a  band  of 
traitors  in  every  besieged  city,  254  ;  the  orators  of,  never  refused  bribes, 


380  INDEX. 

and  oratory  ruled  in,  255 ;  philosophy  and  education  of,  responsible  for 
decay  of  the  civilization  of,  256 ;  ruined  by  metaphysics  and  rhetoric, 
256  ;  no  schools  in,  for  girls,  360. 

Greeks,  were  called  the  people  of  youth,  254 ;  religion  of,  was  of  the  sav- 
age type,  patriotism  narrow,  superstition  gross,  national  festivals  child- 
ish, 254 ;  were  treacherous,  cruel,  and  their  sense  of  honor  dull,  254 ; 
they  enslaved  women  and  robbed  the  bodies  of  the  slain  on  the.  battle- 
field, 254 ;  declaration  of  Thucydides  that  there  was  neither  promise 
that  could  be  depended  upon,  nor  oath  that  struck  them  with  fear,  255 ; 
in  the  Pantheon  the  highest  niche  was  reserved  for  the  God  of  Gain, 
255 ;  the  early,  were  pirates,  and  some  sold  themselves  into  slavery,  so 
great  was  their  lust  of  gold,  255  ;  armies  of  the,  bribed  by  Persia,  255 ; 
young,  taught  the  arts  of  sophistry  in  the  schools  of  rhetoric,  256  ;  never 
emerged  from  the  savage  state,  256. 

Guttenberg,  had  he  been  content  with  an  idea,  there  would  have  been  no 
printing-press,  152. 

H. 

Habit,  all  reforms  must  encounter  the  stolid  resistance  of,  191. 

Hand,  it  is  through  the,  alone,  that  the  mind  impresses  itself  upon  matter, 
141 ;  the  skilled,  confers  benefits  upon  man,  and  each  act  exerts  a  re- 
flex moral  influence  upon  the  mind  of  the  benefactor,  141 ;  and  the 
mind  are  natural  allies,  144;  tests  the  speculations  of  the  mind  by  the 
law  of  practical  application,  144  ;  explodes  the  errors  of  the  mind,  144 ; 
finds  the  truth,  145 ;  if  it  works  falsely,  publishes  its  own  guilt  in  the 
false  thing  it  makes,  145 ;  Dr.  Wilson's  graphic  picture  of  the  versatili- 
ty of  the,  145  ;  not  less  the  guide  than  the  agent  of  the  mind,  145 ;  in- 
fluences the  mind  through  the  muscular  sense,  148 ;  how  its  habit  of 
labor  leads  to  the  discovery  of  the  truth  and  the  exposure  of  the  false, 
149 ;  the  preserver  of  the  power  of  speech  through  the  endless  succes- 
sion of  objects  it  presents  to  the  mind,  151 ;  the,  ceasing  to  labor  in  the 
arts,  to  plant  and  to  gather,  speech  would  degenerate  into  a  mere  itera- 
tion of  the  wants  of  savages  subsisting  on  fruits,  151 ;  the  most  potent 
agency  in  the  work  of  civilization,  152;  mobility  of,  multiplies  its  pow- 
ers in  a  geometrical  ratio,  154;  contempt  of,  an  inheritance  from  the 
speculative  philosophy  of  the  Middle  Ages,  155;  the  works  of,  com- 
prise all  the  visible  results  of  civilization,  155  ;  marvels  wrought  by  the, 
155, 156;  James  MacAlister  on  the  power  and  versatility  of  the  [note], 
156;  wields  the  mechanical  powers — its  works,  158;  the  wise  counsel 
of  the  practical,  steadies  the  mind,  225 ;  not  a  nicer  instrument  than 
the  mind,  240. 

Hand-work,  difficulties  of,  illustrated  by  John  Arnold's  refusal  to  make  a 
duplicate  of  his  George  III.  watch  for  $5,000,  86. 

Hargreeves,  James,  inventor  of  the  "  spinning-jenny,"  84. 


INDEX.  381 

Herbert,  the  famous  selfish  maxim  of,  305. 

Herodotus,  his  description  of  the  hundred  brazen  gates  of  Babylon,  55  ;  his 
contempt  for  the  artisan,  56. 

Hero,  of  Alexandria,  the  inventor  of  the  steam-engine,  14. 

Hero,  the,  is  an  honest  man — that's  all,  283. 

Heroes,  the  thin  ranks  of,  constitute  the  measure  of  the  poverty  of  the  sys- 
tems of  education  that  have  prevailed  among  mankind,  234 ;  are  nor- 
mally developed  men  who  honor  the  truth  everywhere,  234 ;  the  fact 
that  they  are  honored  after  death  evidence  of  progress,  234. 

Heroism  rendered  grand  by  contrast  with  the  debased  standards  of  public 
judgment,  233. 

Herophilus  opens  the  way  to  an  intelligent  study  of  the  mind,  153. 

Hippocrates  opens  the  way  to  an  intelligent  study  of  the  mind,  153. 

Honesty,  only  another  name  for  heroism,  233  ;  scientific  education  will  make 
it  universal,  233. 

Holtzapffels,  speculation  of,  as  to  the  origin  of  the  invention  of  the  lathe,  33. 

Hood,  Tom,  his  song  of  the  shirt,  87. 

Huntsman,  Benjamin,  an  English  inventor  of  the  eighteenth  century,  84; 
sketch  of  the  career  of,  116;  his  invention  of  cast-steel,  and  its  effect 
upon  the  Sheffield  cutlery  market,  116  ;  how  his  secret  was  stolen,  117 ; 
declines  a  membership  of  the  Royal  Society,  117;  how  resplendent  his 
name  is  now,  171. 

I. 

Ideas  are  mere  vain  speculations  till  embodied  in  things,  243 ;  and  things 
are  indissolubly  connected,  244. 

Ignorance,  illustration  of,  in  the  opposition  of  a  Roman  Emperor  to  the  use 
of  improved  machinery,  178 ;  reverences  the  past,  never  doubts,  is  sus- 
picious, an  enemy  of  all  progress,  179;  in  the  schools  of  Norfolk  County, 
Mass.,  197. 

Illinois  Penitentiary,  statistics  of  show  that  four  out  of  five  of  the  inmates 
of  have  no  handicraft,  182. 

Imagination,  Buckle's  tribute  to  the,  38 ;  Disraeli  on  Sir  Robert  Peel's  want 
of,  38 ;  Disraeli's  career  an  illustration  of  the  value  of,  39 ;  the  discovery 
of  America  appealed  powerfully  to  the,  283  ;  blazes  the  path  to  glorious 
achievements,  283. 

Imperial  Technical  School,  Moscow,  manual  training  adopted  as  part  of 
curriculum  of  the,  in  1868,  325  ;  sketch  of  the  history  of  manual  train- 
ing in,  by  Director  Delia  Vos,  325,  326,  327. 

India,  how  the  castes  of,  arose,  249. 

Injustice,  civilization  languishes  in  an  atmosphere  of,  274. 

Inquisition,  the,  its  persecution  of  Galileo,  177,  178. 

Instructors,  lack  of  competent,  in  the  new  education,  346,  347. 

Intelligence,  the  basis  of  morality,  113. 


382  INDEX. 

Inventions,  a  growth,  14 ;  each  step  of  constitutes  a  link  in  the  chain  of 
progress,  187  ;  contain  the  germs  of  imperishable  truth,  243. 

Inventor,  the,  produces  a  machine  that  will  make  a  thousand  things  in  the 
time  required  by  the  hand-worker  to  make  one,  86 ;  helps  on  the  cause 
of  progress,  160;  rules  the  world,  161;  his  works  are  never  repealed, 
187 ;  is  always  in  the  advance,  242. 

Inventive  genius,  to  the,  mankind  owes  more  than  to  the  philosophers,  lit- 
terateurs, professors,  and  statesmen  of  all  time,  84. 

Iowa,  Agricultural  College  of,  makes  domestic  economy  a  part  of  its  curri- 
culum, 354 ;  faculty  and  course  of  study  in  the  department  of  domestic 
economy  of,  354,  355. 

Iron,  Locke's  famous  apothegm  on  the  value  of,  45 ;  the  most  potent  in- 
strument of  power,  61 ;  use  of  by  Queen  Elizabeth  to  defeat  the  Spanish 
Armada,  61 ;  the  equivalent  of  civilization,  62  ;  is  king,  and  the  smelter 
and  smith  are  his  chief  ministers,  62 ;  to  make  a  ton  of,  required  hun- 
dreds of  cords  of  wood  before  the  introduction  of  "pit"  coal  for  smelt- 
ing purposes,  63 ;  the  foundation  of  every  useful  art,  81. 

Italy,  government  of,  during  the  Middle  Ages,  consisted  of  a  menace  and  a 
sneer,  280. 

J. 

Jacobson,  Col.  Augustus,  on  the  demand  for  a  more  comprehensive  system 
of  education,  180;  on  the  proper  equipment  of  the  boy  upon  leaving 
school,  209. 

Jerusalem,  when  conquered,  its  smiths  and  other  craftsmen  were  carried 
away  as  captives  by  the  Babylonians,  70. 

Jews,  learning  of,  exerted  an  ameliorating  influence  upon  the  darkness  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  281. 

Judges,  training  of,  is  exclusively  subjective,  230 ;  rendered  selfish  by  sub- 
jective processes  of  thought,  231 ;  venerate  the  past,  242. 

Justice  assumes  the  place  of  selfishness  in  the  mind  of  the  hero,  233 ;  cause 
of  the  failure  of,  242. 

K. 

Keith,  Edson,  Trustee  of  Chicago  Manual  Training  School  Association,  340. 

Kindergarten,  the,  father  of  the  manual  training  school,  5 ;  fills  a  place  un- 
occupied until  the  time  of  Froebel,  126;  educational  principles  of,  sus- 
ceptible of  universal  application,  126;  analysis  of,  128;  leads  logically 
to  the  manual  training  school,  129  ;  method  of,  is  scientific,  207 ;  method 
of,  is  the  expression  of  ideas  in  things,  245  ;  realizes  the  dream  of  Bacon, 
Comenius,  and  Pestalozzi,  245 ;  exhibits  of  work  of,  at  the  meeting  of  the 
National  Educational  Association  in  1884,  336 ;  endorsed  by  the  National 
Educational  Association,  357 ;  the  growth  of,  prevented  by  prejudice  and 
indifference,  361. 

Kings,  alliance  of,  with  the  aristocracy,  286. 


INDEX.  383 


L. 

Labor  class,  the  real  flower  of  a  population,  289  ;  all  other  classes  depend 
upon  the,  290 ;  a  drain  upon  the,  is  a  drain  upon  the  most  vital  resource 
of  the  State,  290 ;  where  the  flower  of  gathers,  wealth  most  abounds,  290. 

Labor,  manual,  scorn  of,  among  the  ancients,  56 ;  its  slow  recovery  of  inde- 
pendence, its  destined  dignity  through  scientific  and  art  culture,  57 ;  re- 
pugnance to,  has  multiplied  dishonest  practices,  155  ;  respect  for,  would 
be  increased  by  the  adoption  in  the  public  schools  of  a  comprehensive 
system  of  mechanical  training,  182  ;  cause  of  the  scorn  of — the  slavery 
of  the  laborer,  188;  of  to-day  alone  maintains  the  value  of  property, 
252 ;  of  men  cheaper  than  that  of  cattle,  in  Rome,  262  ;  the  useful  arts 
depend  upon,  274 ;  the  foundation  of  national  prosperity,  289 ;  essential 
to  triumphs  in  literature,  music,  and  the  fine  arts,  289 ;  not  gold  and 
silver,  is  the  source  of  wealth,  290 ;  draws  to  itself  the  art  treasures  of 
the  world,  290,  291 ;  contempt  of,  inculcated  by  existing  educational  sys- 
tems, 320. 

Laborer,  the,  how  he  has  been  degraded  through  slavery,  10  ;  contempt  of, 
ingrained  in  the  public  mind — so  much  so  that  the  labor  classes  oppose 
the  introduction  of  tool  practice  to  the  public  schools,  177 ;  contempt  of, 
leads  inevitably  to  social  disintegration,  247 ;  the  battles  of  antiquity 
were  contests  for  the  possession  of,  253 ;  reduced  to  slavery  in  Rome, 
261 ;  a  thing  to  be  spurned  in  Rome,  262  ;  the  useful  arts  decline  if  he 
is  degraded,  274 ;  the  useful  arts  advance  if  he  is  honored,  274 ;  the 
standing  armies  of  Europe  have  cost  him  all  his  noble  ambitions,  291; 
surplus  of,  goes  to  the  tax-gatherer,  291;  forced  to  sacrifice  his  desire 
for  education,  his  love  of  the  beautiful,  of  dignity,  and  of  a  home  adorn- 
ed by  art,  291. 

Laborers  thrown  into  the  arena  in  Rome  to  be  scrambled  for  by  free  citi- 
zens, 265. 

Landed  estates,  effect  of  concentration  of,  in  a  few  hands,  314 ;  vast,  con- 
ferred upon  a  few  corporations  in  the  United  States — double  the  area 
of  that  owned  by  the  lords  of  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland,  315. 

Language,  thought  impossible  without,  150;  changes  in,  arise  out  of  new 
discoveries  in  science  and  new  inventions  in  art,  151 ;  stagnates  when 
the  State  ceases  to  advance,  151 ;  invention  of,  248 ;  when  nations  shall 
dwell  together  in  unity  there  will  be  but  one,  295  [wofe]. 

Lawyers  more  highly  esteemed  than  civil  engineers,  machinists,  and  arti- 
sans, 185;  training  of,  is  exclusively  subjective,  230;  rendered  selfish 
by  subjective  processes  of  thought,  231 ;  look  for  precedents  in  an  age 
whose  civilization  perished  with  its  language,  242. 

Layard,  discoveries  of,  in  the  ruins  of  Nineveh,  46. 

Legislation,  restrictive,  in  England,  to  prevent  the  conversion  of  timber  into 


384  INDEX. 

charcoal  for  smelting  purposes,  63 ;  the  best,  in  England,  is  that  by 
which  former  statutes  were  repealed,  226 ;  of  the  United  States  no  bet- 
ter than  that  of  England,  226 ;  cause  of  failure  of,  242 ;  reckless,  in  the 
United  States,  on  the  subject  of  the  public  domain,  313  ;  of  the  States 
of  the  Union  vicious  and  corrupt,  316. 

Legislators,  not  the  authors  of  English  progress,  159 ;  Buckle's  scathing 
arraignment  of,  160 ;  wiser  in  the  statutes  they  repeal  than  in  those  they 
enact,  226, 227 ;  training  of,  is  exclusively  subjective,  230 ;  rendered  self- 
ish by  subjective  processes  of  thought,  231 ;  become  selfish,  and  vener- 
ate the  past,  242 ;  refuse  to  grant  reforms  until  awed  into  submission, 
242. 

Le  Moyne  Normal  Institute,  manual  training  and  domestic  economy  in,  356. 

Life  Insurance,  ethical  aspect  of,  214. 

Literature,  full  of  maxims  in  honor  of  selfishness,  134;  polite,  must  rest 
upon  a  basis  of  general  culture,  or  it  is  valueless,  275. 

Litterateurs  more  highly  esteemed  than  civil  engineers,  machinists,  and 
artisans,  185. 

Livy  characterizes  Valerius  as  the  first  man  of  his  time,  264 ;  deplores  the 
decay  of  virtue,  but  is  silent  on  the  subject  of  the  infamy  of  slavery,  and 
on  the  shame  of  degrading  labor,  268. 

Lloyd,  Henry  D.,  his  history  of  the  land  system  of  the  United  States — sylla- 
bus of,  311 ;  opening  paragraphs  of  the  history  of  the  land  grants  of 
the  United  States  by,  312,  313;  declaration  of,  that  we  must  hereafter 
find  freedom  in  the  society  of  the  good,  320. 

Locke,  the  school  he  dreamed  of,  2 ;  famous  apothegm  of,  on  iron,  45. 

Locomotives,  no  such  failure  of,  as  there  is  of  legislation,  227. 

Lombardy,  five  famines  in,  during  the  first  half  of  the  thirteenth  century, 
277. 

Louis  XVI.  an  expert  locksmith,  34. 

Lubbock,  Sir  John,  on  the  skill  of  the  savage,  216. 

Lucan,  his  gospel  of  universal  love,  139. 

Lucretia,  political  effects  of  the  tragic  fate  of,  260. 

Luther,  the  reformation  of,  opened  the  way  to  the  last  analysis  of  dissent 
in  America,  303. 

M. 

MacAlister,  James,  declaration  of,  that  there  has  been  but  little  change  in 
the  ideas  that  have  controlled  our  methods  of  education  in  four  hun- 
dred years,  154 ;  his  graphic  description  of  the  power  and  versatility 
of  the  hand  [note],  156 ;  observation  of,  that  a  skilled  hand,  to  the  ma- 
jority of  men,  is  quite  as  important  as  a  well-filled  head,  208  ;  has  revo- 
lutionized the  public  schools  of  Philadelphia  in  two  years,  349 ;  one  of 
the  most  accomplished  as  well  as  sternly  practical  educators  in  the 
United  States,  351 ;  opinion  of,  that  every  child  should  receive  manual 


INDEX.  385 

training,  352 ;  opinion  of,  that  the  great  principles  which  underlie  the 
system  mean  nothing  less  than  a  revolution  in  education  [no<e],  352. 

Machines,  automatic,  nails,  screws,  pins,  and  needles  flying  from  the  fingers 
of,  by  the  thousand  million,  82  ;  more  powerful  to  be  constructed  in  the 
future,  180. 

Machiavelli,  philosophy  formulated  by,  280 ;  political  maxims  of,  not  in- 
vented by  him,  280;  maxims  of,  atrocious  character  of,  280,  281 ;  max- 
ims of,  promote  barbarism,  281. 

Machine-tool  laboratory,  the  students  of,  enter  upon  a  most  important  inquiry, 
82 ;  the  study  of  minute  and  ponderous  tools  in,  through  which  the  great 
enterprises  of  modern  times  are  conducted,  83  ;  delicacy  of  the  processes 
of,  91 ;  the  poverty  of  words  as  compared  with  things  asserted  in,  with 
unexampled  force,  91 ;  silence  of,  how  eloquent,  91,  92  ;  a  screw-engine 
lathe  taken  to  pieces  in  the  presence  of  the  students  of,  92 ;  improve- 
ments in  the  lathe  explained  by  instructor  in,  92;  fundamental  and 
auxiliary  tools  of,  explained  as  introduced  by  instructor  in,  93 ;  course 
of  training  in,  orderly,  93  ;  students  work  from  their  own  drawings  in, 
94;  why  skill  is  required  to  handle  steam-driven  tools  of  the,  94;  as- 
pect of  the,  when  in  repose,  97 ;  aspect  of  the,  when  steam  is  on,  98 ; 
pen-picture  of  students  of,  99  ;  modesty  of  students  of,  99  ;  students  of, 
at  work  on  graduating  projects  in,  100;  variety  of  subjects  of,  graduat- 
ing projects  in,  100;  dream  of  instructor  in,  100-103  ;  completing  grad- 
uating projects  in,  103,  104. 

Machine-tool  shop,  the  modern,  an  aggregation  of  hand-tools  made  auto- 
matic, and  driven  by  steam,  8 ;  revolution  in  the  useful  arts  caused  by 
the,  78 ;  what  this  creation  of  modern  times,  a  huge  automaton  with 
steam  coursing  through  its  veins,  does,  78-81 ;  its  arms,  its  hands,  its 
brain,  its  food,  and  its  products,  81 ;  lines  of  modern  development  con- 
verge in  the,  81 ;  human  pursuits  widely  diversified  by,  82. 

Macomber,  A.  E.,  on  the  Toledo  Manual  Training  School,  359. 

Madrid,  people  of,  threatened  with  starvation,  279  ;  lost  half  its  population 
in  the  seventeenth  century,  279. 

Man,  the  two  states  of — with  and  without  tools — contrasted,  7 ;  the  gulf  be- 
tween the  civilized  and  savage,  spanned  by  the  seven  hand-tools,  8; 
the  wisest  of  animals  because  he  has  hands,  152 ;  the  most  powerful  of 
animals  because  he  has  hands,  157 ;  powers  of,  increased  by  steam,  161 ; 
the  most  highly  civilized,  familiar  with  all  the  arts,  274 ;  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  shrunk  into  a  state  of  moral  cowardice  and  intellectual  lethargy,  280. 

Mann,  Horace,  cause  of  the  degradation  of  labor  stated  by,  5 ;  reason  for 
the  scorn  of  labor  given  by,  in  extenso,  188. 

Manual  training,  promotes  rectitude,  132;  promotes  altruism  because  it  is 
objective,  141 ;  its  effects  relate  to  the  human  race,  141 ;  Prof.  Felix 
Adler  in  support  of  its  tendency  to  promote  rectitude,  142;  idea  of, 


386  INDEX. 

contained  in  the  declaration  of  the  majesty  of  the  hand  by  the  Ionic 
philosopher  of  the  fourth  century  B.C.,  153;  exactly  what  it  is,  200;  is 
like  the  savage  method — natural — and  hence  efficient,  218 ;  required  to 
render  mental  operations  more  true,  225 ;  possible  in  Europe  only 
through  the  disbandment  of  the  standing  armies,  291 ;  in  all  the  tech- 
nical schools  of  Russia,  327 ;  theory  of,  by  Dr.  John  D.  Runkle,  332 ;  in 
the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology,  327,  328 ;  in  the  St.  Louis 
school,  332,  333;  in  twelve  of  the  State  agricultural  colleges,  335;  in 
Purdue  University,  335 ;  in  Boston  and  Milford,  Mass.,  New  Haven,  and 
the  State  Normal  School,  Conn.,  Omaha,  Neb.,  Eau  Claire,  Wis.,  Moline, 
Peru,  and  the  Cook  County  Normal  School,  Normal  Park,  111.,  Montclair, 
N.  J.,  Cleveland  and  Barnesville,  0.,  San  Francisco,  Cal.,  and  Baltimore, 
Md.,  336 ;  exhibits  of  work  of,  at  the  meeting  of  the  National  Educa- 
tional Association  in  1884,336;  in  Prof.  Felix  Adler's  Workingman's 
School,  336;  in  Chicago,  339 ;  Dr.  Belfield  on  the  mental  effect  of,  344; 
in  the  Pennsylvania  State  College,  345 ;  Prof.  Louis  E.  Reber  in  support 
of,  345,  346 ;  in  the  College  of  the  City  of  New  York,  346 ;  in  thirty-one 
schools  in  the  city  of  New  York  [note],  346 ;  in  the  Tulane  University, 
347  ;  in  the  Miller  School  at  Crozet,  Va.,  347  ;  in  Girard  College,  347 ; 
in  the  Alabama  Agricultural  and  Mechanical  College,  349;  in  the  Den- 
ver (Col.)  University,  349;  in  the  public  schools  of  Philadelphia,  351 ; 
in  twenty-four  of  the  States  of  the  Union,  353  ;  in  the  Agricultural  and 
Mechanical  College  of  Texas,  353 ;  adopted  as  part  of  the  course  of 
public  instruction  by  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,  354;  in  the  Le 
Moyne  Normal  Institute,  356  ;  in  the  University  of  Michigan,  357 ;  laid 
on  the  table  by  the  National  Educational  Association,  357,  358;  in  the 
State  University,  Cleveland,  and  Toledo,  0.,  358 ;  is  leading  captive  the 
imagination  of  the  American  people,  361 ;  the  purpose  of,  in  the  schools 
of  Europe  is  purely  industrial,  362. 

Manual  training  school  the  child  of  the  kindergarten,  5 ;  destined  to  unite 
science  and  art,  5  ;  its  highest  text-books  tools,  7 ;  must  be  made  part 
of  the  public  system  of  education,  112;  gain  of  the  pupil  of,  over  the 
pupil  of  the  school  of  the  old  regime,  122;  pupil  of,  constructs  a  ma- 
chine, breathes  into  it  the  breath  of  life,  and  with  it  moves  mountains, 
201 ;  methods  of,  twenty  times  more  valuable  than  the  unscientific 
methods  of  the  trade-shop,  219 ;  pupil  of,  is  an  investigator,  his  reason- 
ing opens  new  fields  of  thought  with  every  stroke  of  the  chisel,  220; 
pupil  of,  gets  as  much  again  intellectual  benefit  from  the  laboratory  as 
he  would  if  the  laboratory  equivalent  in  time  were  given  to  book-study, 
221 ;  laboratory  exercises  of,  a  great  strain  upon  the  mental  constitu- 
tion, and  hence  highly  educational,  222 ;  pupils  of,  love  it — an  incident, 
223  ;  method  of  the,  is  the  expression  of  ideas  in  things,  245  ;  realizes 
the  idea  of  Bacon,  Comeniu.i,  Pestalozzi,  and  Froebel,  245. 


INDEX.  387 

Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology,  its  models  of  mechanical  manipula- 
tion presented  by  the  Emperor  of  Russia,  66 ;  first  institution  of  learn- 
ing in  the  United  States  to  adopt  manual  training,  327 ;  manual  training 
adopted  by,  in  1876,  328 ;  resolution  of  thanks  for  a  series  of  models, 
presented  by  the  Emperor  of  Russia,  adopted  by,  328,  329. 

Massachusetts,  legislature  of,  adopts  manual  training  as  part  of  the  public 
school  course  of,  354. 

Maudslay,  Henry,  his  improvement  of  the  lathe  made  it  the  king  of  the 
machine-tool  shop,  33 ;  without  his  slide-rest  Watt's  engine  could  not 
have  been  made,  35 ;  through  his  slide-rest  alone  the  mechanic  is  able 
to  make  two  things  exactly  alike,  92;  slide-rest  of,  an  automaton  truer 
than  the  human  eye,  more  cunning  than  the  human  hand,  200,  201. 

Maudsley,  Dr.  Henry,  on  the  contribution  of  the  muscular  sense  to  mental 
operations,  147 ;  on  the  impossibility  of  thinking  without  physical  ex- 
pression, 149. 

Mechanic,  the,  who  makes  a  machine  that  multiplies  products  is  in  the 
front  rank  of  the  civilizers  of  the  race,  160 ;  prospects  of  the  skilled,  in 
life,  170 ;  did  more  to  hasten  the  world's  progress  from  1740  to  1840 
than  all  the  statesmen  of  previous  ages,  171;  splendid  career  wliich 
this  age  opens  to  the  educated,  182 ;  tremendous  power  wielded  by,  183 ; 
has  wrought  an  industrial  revolution,  185  ;  works  of,  reflect  honor  upon, 
187;  stands  the  test  of  scrutiny  better  than  the  merchant,  225;  trained 
in  things,  225. 

Mechanics,  skilled,  the  use  of  automatic  tools  increases  rather  than  dimin- 
ishes the  demand  for,  94 ;  of  the  early  time  had  none  of  the  advantages 
of  the  manual  training  school,  172;  their  sufferings  and  misfortunes, 
172 ;  no  such  failure  of,  as  there  is  of  merchants,  227 ;  thoroughness  of 
training  of,  239. 

Mediaeval  period,  the  speculative  philosophy  of,  still  projects  its  baleful  in- 
fluence over  our  institutions  of  learning,  185 ;  graphic  picture  of  society 
in,  by  Winwood  Reade,  276,  277 ;  the  art  of  war  only  flourished  in,  277 ; 
precarious  condition  of  the  serfs  in — fate  of — to  be  killed  in  battle  or 
die  of  starvation,  277  ;  causes  of  the  moral  and  intellectual  darkness  of 
the,  277,  278 ;  causes  of  the  moral  and  intellectual  torpor  of  the  people 
of,  280 ;  conferred  upon  man  two  great  blessings,  and  left  a  legacy  of 
evil,  285',  degradation  of  woman  in  the,  360. 

Memory  cultivated  in  existing  systems  of  education  at  the  expense  of  the 
reason,  200. 

Men  sold  for  sixpence  apiece  in  Asia/  265. 

Menander,  lofty  moral  precepts  of,  139. 

Mental  acquirement,  a,  is  a  theorem — something  to  be  proved,  144. 

Mental  development,  law  of,  131. 

Mental  training,  exclusively,  does  not  produce  a  symmetrical  character,  244. 


388  INDEX. 

Merchants,  percentage  of  failure  of,  in  Chicago  from  1870  to  1881,211; 
three  per  cent,  of,  only,  succeed,  211 ;  ninety-seven  per  cent,  of,  go  to  the 
wall,  212;  cost  of  failures  of,  borne  by  the  public,  212;  ninety-seven 
per  cent,  of,  mistake  their  avocation,  212  ;  failure  of,  made  too  easy,  213 ; 
honor  of,  in  France  [note],  213;  ninety-seven  in  one  hundred  fail,  225; 
cause  of  failures  of,  229;  selfishness  of  —  do  not  seek  for  justice,  or 
to  find  truth,  230 ;  who  compromise  with  their  creditors,  and  subse- 
quently accumulate  fortunes,  rarely  repay  the  forgiven  debt,  230 ;  cause 
of  failure  of,  242. 

Mercury,  bronze  statue  of,  at  the  Museum  of  Naples,  47. 

Michigan,  University  of,  manual  training  in,  as  described  by  Instructor 
Lieut.  M.  E.  Cooley,  357. 

Microscope,  the  work  of  the  hand,  156. 

Milford,  Mass.,  manual  training  in,  336. 

Miller  Manual  Training  School,  the,  of  Crozet,  Va.,  347. 

Mind,  the,  mental  laws  of,  132, 133  ;  moral  laws  of,  133  ;  and  the  hand  are 
natural  allies,  144;  indulges  in  false  logic  without  instant  detection, 
145 ;  the  hand  its  moral  rudder,  its  balance-wheel,  145 ;  Influenced  by 
the  hand  through  the  muscular  sense,  148 ;  steadied  by  the  wise  coun- 
sel of  the  practical  hand,  225 ;  steadied  and  balanced  by  the  study  of 
things,  225 ;  devises  a  watch,  and  the  hand  makes  it,  240  ;  fails  when  it 
attempts  to  execute  its  devices,  240 ;  succeeds  when  the  hand  executes 
its  plans,  but  fails  in  merchandising,  law,  and  justice,  240 ;  should  not 
be  stored  with  facts  unless  they  are  to  be  applied  to  things,  245 ;  how 
it  began  to  assert  its  empire  over  matter,  249. 

Moline,  111.,  manual  training  in,  336. 

Montclair,  N.  J.,  manual  training  in,  336. 

Moors,  the,  in  Spain  in  the  Middle  Ages  constituted  a  glowing  exception  to 
the  general  prevalence  of  superstition  and  ignorance,  278  ;  skilled  in  all 
the  arts,  278. 

Morality,  springs  from  intelligence,  113  ;  is  not  a  mere  sentiment,  a  barren 
ideality,  142;  of  Christ  and  Paul,  142;  is  a  vital  principle  whose  ex- 
emplification consists  in  doing  justice,  142 ;  cannot  be  acquired  by  mem- 
orizing a  series  of  maxims,  143 ;  of  a  community  is  in  the  ratio  of  its 
intelligence,  238. 

Morrissey,  John,  his  brief  autobiography,  308,  309. 

Mother,  the,  in  the  arms  of,  the  infant  mind  rapidly  unfolds,  359. 

Moulding,  the  oldest  of  human  discoveries,  46. 

Murray,  Matt,  inventor  of  flax  machinery,  84. 

Muscular  sense,  the,  its  discovery  by  Sir  Charles  Bell,  146 ;  its  power  over 
the  movements  of  the  frame — walking,  etc.,  146 ;  Dr.  Henry  Maudsley 
on  the,  147;  actions  of  essential  elements  in  mental  operations,  147; 
sharpened  to  marvellous  fineness  by  constant  use,  148 ;  if  trained  in  the 


INDEX.  389 

direction  of  truth,  it  will  react  in  the  direction  of  rectitude,  on  the 

mind,  148, 149. 
Mushet,  David,  an  English  inventor  and  author,  84 ;  his  discovery  of  the 

value  of  black  band  iron-stone,  117;  his  papers  on  iron  and  steel,  117; 

sprung  from  the  labor  class,  117. 
Mythology,  the  highest  place  in  its  Pantheon  given  to  Vulcan,  the  God  of 

Fire,  70. 

N. 

Napoleon,  the  incarnation  of  selfishness,  134, 135 ;  the  infamous,  plundered 
the  conquered  capitals  of  Europe,  290. 

Nasmyth,  James,  invented  the  steam-hammer  in  1837,  and  applied  the 
principle  of  it  to  the  pile-driver  in  1845,  76. 

Nation,  the,  that  degrades  labor  is  ripe  for  destruction,  253 ;  that  loses  its 
population  by  emigration  is  in  its  decadence,  290. 

National  debts  of  Europe,  amount  of,  thirty  years  ago,  286  ;  doubled  since 
1850,  286;  cause  of  the  rapid  increase  of,  286;  represent  a  series  of 
colossal  crimes  against  the  people,  287 ;  with  relation  to  them,  the  peo- 
ple are  divided  into  two  classes — one  class  owns  them,  the  other  class 
pays  interest  on  them,  287 ;  in  one  class  they  are  a  vested  right,  in  the 
other  a  vested  wrong,  287 ;  how  they  can  be  paid,  and  education  pro- 
moted at  the  same  time,  288  ;  can  be  paid  only  by  disbanding  the  stand- 
ing armies,  291 ;  will  reduce  their  governments  to  bankruptcy  unless 
standing  armies  are  disbanded,  292. 

National  Educational  Association,  manual  training  exhibits  at,  1884,  meet- 
ing of,  336 ;  meeting  of  1885  adopts  a  resolution  endorsing  the  kinder- 
garten, 357 ;  illogical  action  of,  in  laying  upon  the  table  a  resolution 
endorsing  manual  training,  357,  358. 

Nations,  the  rise,  progress,  and  decay  of,  252,  253 ;  sink  as  the  column  of 
debt  rises,  293. 

Neilson,  James  B.,  inventor  of  the  hot-blast,  84 ;  revolutionizes  the  processes 
of  iron  manufacture,  117;  sprang  from  the  labor  class,  and  is  made  a 
member  of  the  Royal  Society,  117. 

Newcomen  helps  to  solve  the  steam-power  problem,  15. 

New  England,  system  of  education  of,  moulded  the  character  of  the  civili- 
zation of  the  United  States,  235  ;  difference  between  the  civilization  of, 
and  that  of  South  Carolina,  measured  by  the  difference  in  their  re- 
spective educational  systems,  235 ;  educational  system  of,  is  unscien- 
tific, 239. 

New  Haven,  Conn.,  manual  training  in,  336. 

Nineveh,  bronze  castings  recovered  from  the  ruins  of,  4tt. 

Nobility  above  price  in  the  eleventh  century,  for  sale  in  the  thirteenth,  and 
soon  afterwards  offered  as  a  gift,  282. 

Norway  appropriates  money  for  teaching  hand-cunning  in  the  schools,  362. 


390  INDEX. 

0. 

Object  teaching,  example  of,  4 ;  the  corner-stone  of  the  kindergarten  and 
the  manual  training  school,  129  ;  an  analysis  of,  with  examples,  200. 

Ohio,  high  rank  of,  industrially,  358 ;  making  great  strides  towards  a  more 
practical  system  of  education,  358 ;  State  University  of,  manual  training 
in,  358 ;  prosperity  of  the  Case  School  of  Applied  Science  in,  358;  man- 
ual training  schools  of  Cleveland  and  Toledo,  in,  358. 

Omaha,.  Neb.,  manual  training  in,  336. 

P. 

Palissy,  Bernard,  sketch  of  his  career,  231,  232,  233;  burns  the  furniture 
of  his  house  in  the  cause  of  art,  232 ;  is  cast  into  prison  for  heresy — 
his  defiance  of  King  Henry  III.,  232 ;  dies  in  the  Bastile,  233 ;  a  hero 
neither  to  his  family,  his  friends,  nor  his  king,  233  ;  was  right,  and  his 
devotion  to  art  rendered  him  immortal,  233,  234 ;  struggle  of,  over  the 
furnace  in  the  cause  of  art,  was  mentally  and  morally  normal,  while  the 
opposition  he  encountered  was  abnormal,  234  ;  mind  of,  was  developed 
normally,  while  the  minds  of  the  millions  of  men  who  permitted  him  to 
die  unfriended  were  developed  abnormally,  234 ;  willing  to  starve  for 
his  art,  and  ready  to  die  for  his  faith,  234. 

Papin  helps  to  solve  the  steam-power  problem,  15. 

Paris  Exposition,  exhibit  of  models  of  tool  practice  in  the  Imperial  Techni- 
cal School,  Moscow,  Russia,  at  the,  325. 

Parker,  Col.  Francis  W.,  declares  that  the  application  of  science  to  meth- 
ods of  instruction  would  produce  a  radical  change  in  all  school  work, 
205 ;  his  forcible  exposition  of  the  defects  of  prevailing  methods  of 
instruction,  205,  206,  207 ;  asserts  that  teachers  are  faithful,  honest, 
and  earnest,  but  ignorant  of  the  history  and  science  of  education, 
207. 

Patriotism  can  be  indulged  with  good  reason  only  in  the  United  States,  317. 

Penmanship,  automatism  in  teaching,  in  the  schools  of  the  United  States, 
as  shown  by  the  Walton  report,  198. 

Pennsylvania  State  College,  manual  training  in  the,  345. 

Pennsylvania  State  Prison,  statistics — five-sixths  of  the  inmates  of,  had  at- 
tended public  schools,  and  the  same  number  were  without  trades,  182. 

Pericles  boasted  that  he  could  not  be  bribed,  but  robbed  all  Greece  to  em- 
bellish Athens,  and  was  convicted  of  peculation  and  fined,  255. 

Persia,  no  provision  in,  for  cither  the  mental  or  moral  training  of  woman, 
360 ;  the  boy  in,  excluded  from  the  presence  of  his  father  till  the  fifth 
year,  361. 

Peru,  111.,  manual  training  in,  336. 

Pestalozzi,  the  school  he  struggled  in  vain  to  establish,  2 ;  his  definition  of 


INDEX.  391 

education,  12;  his  condemnation  of  the  old  system  of  education,  126; 
foresaw  the  kindergarten  and  the  manual  training  school,  245. 

Phidias  familiar  with  the  turning  lathe,  33. 

Philadelphia,  manual  training  made  part  of  the  public  school  system  of, 
349;  rules  of  the  public  schools  of,  349,  350;  report  of  a  committee 
of  the  Board  of  Education  of,  in  regard  to  the  introduction  of  manual 
training  to  the  school  system  of,  350,  351 ;  comprehensiveness  of  the 
course— hand -training  introduced  into  the  public  schools  of,  for  both 
sexes,  352. 

Philosophers,  the,  little  time  to  speculate  with,  180. 

Philosophy  established  on  a  scientific  basis  —  the  study  of  natural  phe- 
nomena, 153 ;  of  the  Greeks  scorned  both  science  and  art,  257. 

Physical  development,  law  of,  131. 

Pile  -  driver,  the  steam  -  hammer  principle  applied  to  the,  76 ;  power  of 
the,  76. 

Pilgrims,  the  product  of  the  progress  of  all  the  ages,  302. 

Pine,  in  the  forest  and  in  lumber,  21 ;  description  of  the  tree  by  the  son  of 
a  lumberman,  21;  uses  of,  commerce  in,  supply  of,  22;  sources  of  in- 
formation of  students  in  regard  to — newspapers  and  encyclopedias,  25. 

Plato,  his  theory  of  the  divine  origin  of  caste,  123  ;  blinded  by  half-truths, 
124;  how  he  was  controlled  by  his  environment,  124  ;  his  theory  of  the 
importance  of  early  training,  125 ;  his  contempt  for  the  useful  arts,  176, 
177;  regarded  the  soul's  residence  in  the  body  as  an  evil,  256  ;  opinion 
of,  that  the  majority  is  always  dull  and  always  wrong,  276. 

Pliny,  affection  of,  for  his  slaves,  139. 

Plutarch,  sublime  moral  teachings  of,  138 ;  on  the  death  of  his  daughter, 
139. 

Poets,  the,  little  time  to  sentimentalize  with,  180;  more  highly  esteemed 
than  civil  engineers,  machinists,  and  artisans,  185. 

Poole,  Dr.  William  F.,  courtesy  of,  to  the  students  of  the  Chicago  Manual 
Training  School,  342. 

Power,  generation  of,  the  object  of  education,  244 ;  to  generate  and  store 
up  either  mental  or  physical,  not  to  be  exerted,  is  a  waste  of  energy,  245. 

Printing,  the  art  of,  essential  to  progress  in  the  useful  arts,  73 ;  not  so  nec- 
essary to  progress  in  the  so-called  fine  arts,  73 ;  removes  the  seal  from 
the  lips  of  learning,  282 ;  makes  every  discovery  in  science  and  every 
invention  in  art  the  heritage  of  all  the  ages,  282  ;  the  invention  of,  par- 
alyzed authority,  283. 

Progress,  if  Guttenberg  had  rested  content  with  an  idea,  there  would  have 
been  no  printing-press,  152 ;  if  Watt,  Stephenson,  and  Fulton  had  stopped 
at  words,  there  would  have  been  neither  railways  nor  steamships,  152; 
dates  from  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century,  153 ;  slow  until 
within  one  hundred  years,  153  ;  due  not  to  the  men  who  make  laws,  but 

17 


392  INDEX. 

to  the  men  who  make  things,  160;  of  the  world  towards  a  higher  ap- 
preciation of  the  value  of  the  useful  art?,  172 ;  of  moral  ideas  shown 
by  the  honors  lavished  upon  the  memory  of  heroes,  234 ;  can  find  ex- 
pression only  in  things,  243. 

Property,  no  security  for,  in  a  community  devoid  of  education,  237  ;  intelli- 
gence alone  confers  a  sacred  character  upon,  237 ;  may  be  protected  by 
a  hired  soldiery,  or  by  public  sentiment  enlightened  by  education,  238 ; 
the  main  purpose  of  governments  is  to  protect,  but  nearly  all  the  gov- 
ernments of  history  have  been  destroyed  in  the  effort  to  fulfil  this  func- 
tion of  their  existence,  238 ;  in  slaves,  failure  of  the  United  States  to 
protect,  238 ;  rights  of,  in  English  land,  about  to  be  disturbed,  238 ;  not 
sacred  unless  honestly  acquired  and  honestly  held,  238 ;  all  in  the 
United  States  may  be  devoted  to  education  by  the  ballot,  318. 

Prudence,  extreme,  consistent  with  rectitude,  136 ;  selfishness  deified  under 
the  name  of,  305. 

Public  lands  of  the  United  States  squandered  by  Congress,  311 ;  history  of 
waste  of,  by  Henry  D.  Lloyd,  in  the  Chicago  Tribune,  811,  312,  313. 

Public  schools  of  New  England,  the  corollary  of  universal  suffrage,  303 ; 
the  old  system  of  education  put  into  the,  303 ;  popular  idea  of  the,  304 ; 
neither  science  nor  art  taught  in  the,  304 ;  revived  the  Greco-Roman 
subjective  system,  introduced  into  England  with  the  revival  of  learning, 
304. 

Public  schools  of  the  United  States,  attendance  in,  not  compulsory — some 
children  enter  them,  and  some  do  not,  310;  leave  out  that  which  most 
nearly  concerns  the  business  of  life,  319. 

Pugilist,  how  John  Morrissey  became  a,  308,  309. 

Pullman,  George  M.,  Trustee  of  the  Chicago  Manual  Training  School  Asso- 
ciation, 340. 

Purdue  University,  pronounced  success  achieved  in  manual  training  in,  un- 
der the  directorship  of  Professor  Goss,  335. 

R. 

Railroad,  the,  influence  of,  upon  the  destinies  of  mankind,  170 ;  taxes  to  the 
utmost  nearly  every  department  of  the  useful  arts,  171 ;  incompetency 
of  management  of,  as  shown  by  shrinkage  in  values  of  stocks  of,  210 ; 
in  the  proprietor  of,  the  two  great  elements  of  modern  power,  land  and 
steam,  are  united,  315;  proprietor  of  the,  is  a  king,  315;  monstrous 
claims  of  the  proprietor  of,  315. 

Reading,  automatism  of  teaching,  in  the  schools  of  the  United  States,  as 
shown  by  the  Walton  report,  197  ;  Colonel  Parker  declares  that  pre- 
vailing methods  of  instruction  in,  are  "  utterly  opposed  to  a  mental  law 
about  which  there  can  be  no  dispute,"  206. 

Reason,  in  existing  systems  of  education,  allowed  to  slumber,  200. 


INDEX.  393 

Reber,  Prof.  Louis  E.,  of  the  Pennsylvania  State  College,  in  support  of  man- 
ual training,  346. 

Richard  I.  presents  King  Arthur's  sword  Excalibar  to  Tancred,  the  Crusa^ 
der,  71. 

Roberts,  Richard,  a  great  English  inventor  of  the  eighteenth  century,  84. 

"Rocket,"  the,  George  Stephenson's  first  locomotive,  118. 

Roebuck,  Dr.  John,  a  patron  of  Watt,  84. 

Roman  aristocrats,  were  refined  and  accomplished,  272 ;  the  product  of  the 
Romau  schools  of  rhetoric  and  logic,  273 ;  savage  contest  for  suprem- 
acy among  the,  273 ;  the  prize  for  which  they  contended,  273. 

Roman  civilization  the  product  of  all  that  had  gone  before,  260. 

Roman  literature,  possessed  no  saving  quality,  271 ;  did  not  represent  the 
Roman  people,  271. 

Roman  State,  the,  slavery  the  corner-stone  of,  261. 

Romans,  the,  had  no  peer  either  in  courage  or  fortitude,  260 ;  vices  of, 
shown  in  the  character  of  Appius,  the  Decemvir,  260 ;  virtues  of,  shown 
in  the  character  of  Virginias,  261 ;  sense  of  justice  of,  swallowed  up  in 
lust  of  power,  262 ;  early  triumphs  of  industrial,  264 ;  indebted  to  slaves 
for  all  the  arts,  265 ;  philosophy  of,  so  shallow  as  to  render  them  callous 
to  the  great  crimes  upon  which  the  "State  rested,  268 ;  debasing  influ- 
ence of  the  Greek  philosophy  upon,  270 ;  under  the  Empire  rewarded 
vice  and  punished  virtue,  270 ;  preferred  Caesar,  Caligula,  and  Xero 
to  Cato,  Germanicus,  and  Agricola,  270 ;  retrograded  towards  a  state  of 
savagery  under  the  Empire,  271;  became  absolutely  selfish,  and  hence 
totally  depraved,  272. 

Rome,  the  decline  of,  caused  by  the  failure  of  the  fuel  supply,  and  by  her 
neglect  of  the  useful  arts,  63,  64 ;  had  she  possessed  great  mechanics 
her  fall  might  have  been  averted,  64  ;  her  civilization  culminated  at  the 
limit  of  the  application  of  iron  to  the  useful  arts,  83  ;  a  pen-picture  of 
the  decline  of,  83 ;  her  splendors  and  her  degradation,  138 ;  fall  of, 
stopped  the  study  of  physiology,  153 ;  the  dominion  of,  logical — vigorous 
but  pitiless,  259 ;  all  the  great  races  mingled  in,  260  ;  laws  of,  show  the 
stamina  of  her  people,  261 ;  supply  of  laborers  for,  maintained  by  de- 
populating conquered  countries,  261 ;  in  the  train  of  the  legions  return- 
ing to,  were  men,  women,  and  children  destined  to  slavery,  261 ;  laws  of, 
in  regard  to  slaves,  terrible,  261 ;  for  the  free  citizen  of,  to  labor  with  his 
hands  was  more  disgraceful  than  to  die  of  starvation,  262 ;  free  citizen 
paupers  of,  crying  "  bread  and  circuses,"  262 ;  education  in,  confined  to 
politics  and  war,  262 ;  became  the  great  robber  nation  of  the  world, 
262  ;  was  on  the  land  what  Greece  had  been  on  the  sea — a  pirate,  262 ; 
the  spoil  of  conquered  countries  used  to  bribe  courts,  senators,  and  the 
populace,  263;  nothing  safe  in,  from  the  hand  of  rapacity,  263;  grew 
rich  through  plunder,  and  poor  in  public  and  private  virtue,  263 ;  bribery 


394  INDEX. 

in,  264  ;  great  social  change  in,  after  the  fall  of  Greece  and  Carthage  and 
the  reduction  of  Asia,  264 ;  summary  of  the  causes  of  the  fall  of,  264 ; 
scenes  immediately  preceding  the  fall  of,  265,  266 ;  the  seat  of  all  the 
world's  learning,  266 ;  the  wise  men  of,  powerless  to  help  their  fellow- 
men,  because  their  philosophy  was  false,  266  ;  metaphysical  philosophy 
of,  266,  267 ;  the  philosophy  of,  furnished  an  excuse  for  slavery,  267 ; 
suffrage  in,  the  subject  of  open  traffic,  267,  268  ;  noted  men  of,  igno- 
rant of  the  cause  of  the  disorders  which  afflicted  the  body  politic,  268 ; 
in  the  city  of,  vice  reigned  supreme,  while  in  the  provinces  there  was 
a  middle  class  by  whom  all  the  domestic  virtues  were  practised,  308 ; 
no  culture  in,  for  girls  till  late  in  the  Empire,  360. 

Komulus  and  Remus,  legend  of,  259. 

Rousseau,  the  school  he  described,  2 ;  his  opinion  that  the  poor  need  no 
education,  124;  his  theory  of  the  vital  importance  of  early  training, 
125;  his  definition,  of  education,  125;  his  appreciation  of  the  impor- 
tance of  the  education  of  woman,  125,  126  ;  his  condemnation  of  the 
old  system  of  education,  126 ;  declaration  of,  that  education  is  nothing 
but  habit,  245. 

Runkle,  Dr.  John  D.,  his  declaration  that  public  education  should  touch 
practical  life  in  a  larger  number  of  points,  202 ;  the  founder  of  manual 
training  in  the  United  States,  327  ;  excerpts  from  the  report  of,  in  1876, 
recommending  the  adoption  of  manual  training  by  the  Massachusetts 
Institute  of  Technology,  327,  328  ;  letter  of,  to  the  author,  containing  an 
exposition  of  the  theory  of  manual  training,  with  an  account  of  its  origin 
in  the  mind  of,  331,  332;  assists  in  introducing  manual  training  into 
Girard  College,  348. 

Ruskin,  on  finding  the  truth  in  things  [note],  145;  on  disciplining  the  fin- 
gers in  the  laboratory  of  the  goldsmiths  [note],  148 ;  on  learning  by  labor 
what  the  lips  of  man  could  never  teach  [note],  152  ;  tribute  of,  to  labor, 
[note],  161 ;  on  rogues,  a  manufactured  article  [note],  237;  on  how  na- 
tional debts  bear  upon  labor  [note],  287  ;  on  how  standing  armies  are 
supported  [note],  289. 

Russia,  Emperor  of,  presents  one  hundred  models  of  mechanical  manipula- 
tions to  the  Massachusetts  Institute  "of  Technology,  69;  offers  John  Ar- 
nold five  thousand  dollars  for  a  duplicate  of  his  George  III.  watch,  86. 

Russia,  arbitrary  act  of,  in  1770,  in  relation  to  the  export  of  iron,  115; 
solves  the  problem  of  tool  instruction  by  the  laboratory  process,  325 ; 
manual  training  introduced  into  all  the  technical  schools  of,  327. 

S. 

San  Francisco,  Cal.,  manual  training  in,  336. 

Sankey  Canal,  the,  authorized  upon  condition  that  boats  plying  upon  it 
should  be  drawn  by  men  only,  179. 


INDEX.  395 

Saracens,  the  friends  of  education,  of  science  and  art,  278 ;  inventors  of 
cotton-paper,  promoters  of  all  the  industries,  including  agriculture,  278, 
279;  driven  from  the  soil  they  had  made  to  blossom  like  the  rose,  279; 
ameliorating  influence  of,  upon  the  ignorance  and  superstition  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  281. 

Savage,  the,  how  he  is  trained,  9 ;  helplessness  of,  without  tools,  11;  how 
he  is  taught  to  hunt  and  fish,  176;  kills  a  pigeon  with  a  spear  at  thirty 
yards,  but  cannot  count  the  fingers  on  his  right  hand,  181 ;  is  taught 
what  he  needs  to  know  in  his  condition,  and  is  taught  nothing  else,  181 ; 
if  his  education  were  as  unscientific  as  that  of  the  civilized  boy,  the  race 
would  perish  in  the  process  of  being  civilized,  215  ;  ninety-nine  times  in 
a  hundred  he  traces  the  footsteps  of  his  enemy  in  the  forest,  215,  216 ; 
education  of,  is  scientific,  216  ;  in  the  practical  character  of  the  training 
of,  consists  its  excellence,  217;  mystery  which  envelops  skill  of,  solved, 
219  ;  ignorant,  in  his  primitive  state,  of  all  the  art.*,  274. 

Savonarola,  the  hater  of  abuses  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  234  ;  at  the 
death  -  bed  of  Lorenzo  de  Medici,  235 ;  shaking  thrones  and  making 
proud  prelates  tremble,  235. 

Savory  helps  to  solve  the  steam-power  problem,  15. 

Saw-mills,  opposition  to  their  introduction  in  England,  178. 

School,  of  the  future,  2 ;  proposed  by  Ruskin  [note],  180. 

Schools,  the,  have  not  moved  forward  with  events,  154 ;  are  still  dominated 
by  mediaeval  ideas  of  speculative  philosophy,  154 ;  as  an  industrial 
agency  are  a  failure,  202 ;  were  established  as  a  bulwark  of  liberty,  202. 

Schools  of  England,  arraignment  of,  by  Herbert  Spencer,  319. 

Schwab,  Dr.  Erasmus,  author  of  a  book  entitled,  "  The  Work  School  in  the 
Common  School,"  362. 

Science,  effect  of  divorce  of,  from  art,  11 ;  through  printing  every  discovery 
in,  becomes  the  heritage  of  future  ages,  282. 

Scientific  education,  simplicity  of,  207,  208  ;  difference  between,  and  unsci- 
entific, 217;  description  of,  by  Miss  S.  E.  Blow,  218,  219 ;  the  manual 
training  school  course  which  exercises  simultaneously  the  powers  of 
both  body  and  mind,  223 ;  is  natural  education,  223 ;  brightens,  stimu- 
lates, and  develops,  while  automatic  stupefies,  223,  224. 

Scientist,  the,  a  public  benefactor,  160;  studies  the  stars,  the  earth,  and 
the  air  in  the  light  of  the  flames  of  persecution,  283. 

Scott,  Frank  J.,  contributor  to  the  fund  for  the  founding  of  the  Toledo, 
Ohio,  Manual  Training  School,  358. 

Scott,  Jesup  W.,  the  founder  of  the  Toledo  Manual  Training  School,  358. 

Scott,  Maurice,  contributor  to  the  fund  for  the  founding  of  the  Toledo  Man- 
ual Training  School,  358. 

Scott,  William  F.,  contributor  to  the  fund  for  the  founding  of  the  Toledo 
Manual  Training  School,  358. 


396  INDEX. 

Sculpture,  limit  of,  reached  in  Greece,  73. 

Scythians,  among  the,  the  iron  sword  was  a  god,  70. 

Segovia,  manufactures  of,  destroyed  by  the  expulsion  of  the  Moors  from 
Spain,  279. 

Seligman,  Mr.  Joseph,  munificence  of,  established  Professor  Adler's  Work- 
ingman's  School  in  New  York  City  on  a  firm  basis,  339. 

Selfishness  the  arch-enemy  of  virtue,  134;  maxims  in  honor  of,  134;  Na- 
poleon a  colossal  example  of  the  folly  of,  135 ;  in  conflict  with  the  true 
spirit  of  civilization,  135  ;  causes  revolutions  and  destroys  governments, 
135;  is  blind  of  one  eye — sees  only  one  side  of  a  cause,  136;  let  not 
prudence  be  confounded  with,  136 ;  extreme,  the  synonym  of  depravity, 
136;  promoted  by  prevailing  systems  of  education,  136 ;  promoted  by 
a  mercantile  career,  230;  of  the  lawyer,  the  judge,  and  the  legislator, 
230,  231 ;  as  it  recedes  from  the  mind,  justice  assumes  its  appropriate 
place  as  the  controlling  element  in  human  conduct,  233  ;  the  source  of 
all  social  evil,  247 ;  transformed  Roman  courage  into  cruelty,  and  Ro- 
man fortitude  into  brutal  stoicism,  262 ;  transformed  the  government 
of  Rome  from  a  pure  democracy  into  an  oligarchy  of  wealth,  272 ;  van- 
quishes itself  in  Rome,  273 ;  the  equivalent  of  savagery,  273 ;  deified 
under  the  name  of  prudence,  305 ;  calling  it  prudence  led  to  confound- 
ing right  and  wrong,  305  ;  effects  of,  in  the  nineteenth  century  the  same 
as  in  the  first,  306 ;  the  mind  charged  with,  through  subjective  educational 
processes,  320;  ends  in  a  struggle  which  ends  in  a  revolution,  320. 

Seneca,  sublime  moral  precepts  of,  contrasted  with  the  horrors  of  the  gladi- 
atorial games,  138  ;  his  doctrine  of  humanity,  139 ;  ignores  slavery,  the 
slave,  the  laborer,  and  the  useful  arts,  268 ;  morals  of,  glittering  gen- 
eralities, politics  of,  practical,  269 ;  put  money  in  his  purse,  269  ;  charged 
with  complicity  in  the  Piso  conspiracy,  and  banished  for  the  crime  of 
adultery,  269. 

Serfs  of  the  Middle  Ages  converted  into  mercenary  troops  to  guard  the 
modern  State,  286. 

Seville,  silk  industry  of,  278  ;  looms  of,  silenced  in  the  seventeenth  century, 
279. 

Sewing-machine,  the,  its  accuracy,  87 ;  it  illustrates  the  interdependence  of 
the  practical  arts,  87 ;  it  multiplies  garments  beyond  the  power  of  fig- 
ures to  express,  87. 

Sheffield,  Lord,  his  estimate  of  the  value  of  Henry  Cort's  improvements  in 
iron  and  the  steam-engine  of  Watt,  115  ;  his  declaration  of  the  purpose 
of  the  establishment  of  the  American  colonies,  202. 

Sheffield,  town  of,  its  insignificance  in  1715,116;  its  manufacturing  impor- 
tance now,  116. 

Skill  being  prolific  of  good  should  be  brought  to  bear  upon  educational 
systems,  132. 


INDEX.  397 

Slavery  existed  in  the  United  States  when  Horace  Mann  declared  it  to  be 
the  cause  of  the  degradation  of  labor  and  the  laborer,  189 ;  aided  by 
England  in  its  struggle  for  survival,  189;  influence  of,  not  yet  extinct, 
189 ;  has  kept  its  brand  of  shame  upon  the  useful  arts  for  thousands 
of  years,  190;  how  the  Egyptian  was  reduced  to,  250;  and  labor  were 
synonymous  terms  in  Rome,  261  ;  a  state  of,  is  a  state  of  war,  261 ;  con- 
founded with  freedom  in  the  United  States,  305  ;  negroes  escaping  from, 
called  fugitives  from  justice,  305 ;  justified  in  Faneuil  Hall,  the  cradle 
of  liberty,  305  ;  tried  only  by  the  test  of  self-interest,  306  ;  in  the  North 
it  faded  away,  in  the  South  it  nourished,  306 ;  climate  conditions,  not 
education,  saved  this  continent  from  the  scourge  of,  306,  307;  question 
of  continuance  of,  in  the  United  States,  settled  by  violence,  as  savages 
settle  controversies,  307. 

Slaves,  in  Rome,  laws  in  relation  to,  261 ;  a  million  killed  in  the  course  of 
the  servile  rebellion  in  Sicily,  261 ;  exposed  to  wild  beasts  in  the  arena 
for  the  popular  amusement,  261 ;  all  industrial  pursuits  in  Rome  carried 
on  by,  262 ;  labor  of,  in  Rome,  cheaper  than  that  of  cattle,  262 ;  con- 
struct all  the  great  public  works  in  Rome,  265 ;  strike  for  liberty  in 
Rome,  and  are  slaughtered,  365 ;  clank  of  the  chains  of,  in  the  streets 
of  Boston,  305. 

Smeaton  helps  to  solve  the  steam-power  problem,  15  ;  the  best  workman  of 
his  time,  85. 

Smiles,  Samuel,  declares  that  the  automata  of  the  Middle  Ages  led  to  the 
useful  automatic  tools  of  the  eighteenth  century,  35 ;  his  peculiar  views 
about  Maudslay's  great  invention,  36  ;  his  history  of  the  Dutch  and  Ger- 
man mechanics  who  contributed  to  the  solution  of  the  problem  of  the 
application  of  mineral  coal  to  smelting  purposes,  64 ;  his  graphic  pict- 
ure of  the  versatility  of  the  smith,  71 ;  his  pen-picture  of  the  steam- 
ship Warrior  "  breasting  the  billows  of  the  North  Sea,"  85 ;  shows 
the  true  springs  of  English  greatness  in  his  "  Lives  of  the  Engineers," 
172;  shows  the  origin  of  useful  arts  in  England  in  Ids  great  work 
on  the  Huguenots,  185. 

Smith,  the,  gives  direction  to  the  course  of  Empire,  62 ;  a  man  of  great  con- 
sequence in  England  in  the  early  time,  71 ;  name  of,  descends  to  more 
families  than  that  of  any  other  profession,  71 ;  versatility  of,  71,  72 ; 
conducts  the  engineering  at  the  siege  of  Berwick,  72;  ancient,  kin  to 
all  the  ages  through  his  works,  74. 

Social  evils,  are  the  product  of  defective  education,  319. 

Social  problems,  solution  of,  to  be  sought  through  a  radical  change  in  ed- 
ucational methods,  248 ;  the  railway  and  factory  are  new  factors  in, 
315 ;  of  America  cannot  be  settled  as  those  of  Europe  are,  by  emigra- 
tion, 320. 

Solicis,  Prof.  G.,  the  chief  supporter  of  manual  training  in  France,  362. 


398  1XJDEX. 

South  Carolina,  educational  system  of,  confined  to  a  class,  as  opposed  to 
universal  education  in  New  England,  235. 

Spain,  ruined  by  the  expulsion  of  the  Moors,  279 ;  destitution  in  the  chief 
cities  of,  279  ;  danger  that  the  royal  family  of,  would  go  hungry  to  bed, 
279 ;  is  bankrupt,  292. 

Speculation,  rages  on  the  exchanges  of  all  large  American  cities,  316;  af- 
fects every  class  in  the  community,  316 ;  stimulates  bad  passions,  and 
creates  a  distaste  for  labor,  316. 

Speculative  philosophy,  only  resource  of  the  ancients,  153;  dominated  the 
world  from  the  fall  of  Rome  to  the  time  of  Bacon,  153. 

Speech,  must  be  incarnate  in  things  or  it  is  dead,  141 ;  man  would  lose  the 
power  of,  if  his  words  should  cease  to  be  realized  in  things,  149 ;  de- 
pendent upon  objects  for  its  existence,  150 ;  has  its  origin  not  less  in 
external  objects  than  in  the  mind,  150;  would  be  lost  if  the  senses 
should  cease  to  be  impressed  by  things,  150;  freedom  of,  and  of 
thought,  catch-penny  phrases,  192. 

Spelling,  automatism  in  teaching,  in  the  schools  of  the  United  States,  as 
shown  by  the  Walton  report,  198,  199. 

Spencer,  Herbert,  on  the  defects  of  the  schools  of  England,  319. 

Standing  armies  of  Europe,  a  legacy  of  evil  from  the  Middle  Ages,  285 ; 
recruited  from  the  ranks  of  the  emancipated  serfs,  286 ;  the  dominant 
feature  of  European  public  economy,  286 ;  number  two  million  five  hun- 
dred thousand  men,  286 ;  collateral  evils  of — wars,  debts,  and  exorbi- 
tant tax  levies,  286 ;  are  responsible  for  the  illiteracy  and  pauperism 
of  the  people,  288 ;  what  they  cost  and  what  they  stand  in  the  way  of, 
289 ;  how  they  are  supported  [note],  289 ;  are  an  assumption  of  the 
barbarism  of  man,  296 ;  stand  in  the  way  of  universal  education  and 
universal  industrial  prosperity,  299 ;  must  everywhere  soon  disappear 
before  the  march  of  education,  299;  are  as  abnormal  in  Europe  as 
slavery  was  in  the  United  States,  299,  300;  are  the  instruments  of  tyr- 
anny, the  last  analysis  of  selfishness,  300;  the  result  of  the  Greco-Ro- 
man methods  of  education,  300. 

State,  a,  growth  of,  depends  upon  progress  in  the  practical  arts,  151 ;  ceas- 
ing to  advance,  its  language  ceases  to  grow,  becomes  stationary,  stag- 
nates, 151. 

Statesmen,  not  the  authors  of  English  progress,  159;  Buckle's  scathing  ar- 
raignment of,  160;  more  highly  esteemed  than  civil  engineers,  machin- 
ists, and  artisans,  185. 

Statutes,  that  wear  out  in  a  year,  241. 

Steam,  power  of,  known  to  the  ancients,  14 ;  makes  all  civilized  countries 
prosperous  and  great,  161  ;  must  be  harnessed  at  the  forge  and  in  the 
shop  to  enable  it  to  do  its  work,  170;  power  exerted  by,  in  the  manu- 
factories of  Great  Britain  equal  to  the  manual  labor  of  four  hundred 


INDEX.  399 

millions  of  men,  184 ;  may  be  likened  to  an  idea  which  finds  expression 
through  the  engine  —  a  thing,  246;  the  railway  and  the  factory  two 
great  products  of,  315. 

Steam-hammer,  the,  in  works  of  Mr.  Crane,  Chicago,  75 ;  in  Pittsburg,  Pa., 
and  at  Krupp's  cast-steel  works,  Essen,  Germany,  75  ;  invention  of,  in 
1837,  its  accuracy,  power,  and  delicacy,  76  ;  application  of  the  principle 
of,  to  the  pile-driver  in  1845,  76. 

Steamship,  the,  influence  of,  upon  the  destinies  of  mankind,  170. 

Steel,  Age  of,  great  enterprises  of  the,  dwarf  the  merely  ornamental  branches 
of  learning,  179. 

Steele,  Prof.  A.  J.,  Principal  of  the  Le  Moyne  Normal  Institute — letter  of, 
to  the  Author,  356. 

Stephenson,  George,  inventor  of  the  locomotive,  84;  sketch  of  his  remark- 
able career,  118,  119;  declines  knighthood  and  a  membership  in  the 
Royal  Society,  119 ;  the  founder  of  the  railway  system  of  the  world,  119. 

Stephenson,  Robert,  an  English  railway  engineer,  84. 

Stick,  legend  of  Adam  and  the,  157  ;  the  symbol  and  instrument  of  power, 
158. 

Stoics  and  philosophers  of  Rome,  lofty  moral  sentiments  of,  in  contrast  with 
the  Roman  vices,  139. 

Suetonius,  portrays  the  cruelties  of  the  Caesars,  but  hints  at  no  cause  there- 
for inherent  in  the  social  system,  268. 

Suffrage,  love  of  country  in  the  United  States  is  a  due  appreciation  of  the 
right  of,  317 ;  in  the  universality  of  the  right  of,  lies  the  power  of  cor- 
recting all  social  evils,  318;  destined  to  preservation  forever  in  the 
United  States,  318;  attempt  to  limit,  in  New  York  accounted  for  by  the 
prevalence  of  European  ideas,  318 ;  the  right  of,  can  be  taken  from  the 
American  people  only  by  force,  318  ;  standard  of,  lowered  by  ignorance 
and  depravity,  319;  when  better  informed  it  will  be  more  honest,  319; 
with  increased  intelligence  it  will  gain  the  power  to  grapple  with  social 
abuses,  319. 

Superstition,  how  it  arose  through  ignorance  and  selfishness,  249. 

Sweden,  five  hundred  slojd  schools  in,  in  1882,  362 ;  supports  a  school  for 
the  training  of  teachers  of  slojd  schools  at  Naas,  363. 

Syria,  the  founders,  smiths,  and  all  the  artisans  of,  were  slaves,  56. 

T. 

Tacitus,  his  account  of  the  execution  of  four  hundred  slaves  for  the  murder 
of  one  man,  261 ;  his  lament  at  the  decline  of  public  virtue,  263 ;  is  si- 
lent on  the  subject  of  the  infamy  of  slavery,  and  on  the  shame  of  de- 
grading labor,  268. 

Tancred  the  Crusader  pays  for  King  Arthur's  sword  Excalibar  "  f our  great 
ships  and  fifteen  galley?,"  71. 


400  INDEX. 

Tarquins,  the  banishment  of,  shows  the  swiftness  of  Roman  retribution, 
and  £he  terrible  force  of -Roman  resolution,  260. 

Telegraph,  the,  influence  of,  upon  the  destinies  of  mankind,  170. 

Telephone,  the  work  of  the  hand,  156. 

Telescope,  the  work  of  the  hand,  155. 

Texas,  Agricultural  and  Mechanical  College  of — how  it  was  revolutionized 
and  manual  training  introduced,  353. 

Theodoric,  attempt  of,  to  reconstruct  the  Roman  civilization,  275 ;  the  or- 
der evoked  from  chaos  by,  to  chaos  soon  returned,  276. 

Theorem,  a,  whether  susceptible  of  proof,  is  always  a  question  until  the 
doubt  is  solved  by  the  act  of  doing,  144. 

Things  both  the  subject  and  occasion  of  speech,  151 ;  regarded  as  of  less 
vital  importance  than  abstract  ideas,  185;  the  false,  easily  detected  in 
— examples,  224 ;  the  study  of,  steadies  and  balances  the  mind,  225 ; 
the  truth  revealed  only  in,  243 ;  ideas  are  mere  vain  speculations  till 
embodied  in,  243 ;  the  habit  of  expressing  ideas  in,  should  be  formed 
in  the  schools,  245. 

Thinking,  acting  is  the  complement  of,  244. 

Thought,  must  be  incarnate  in  things,  or  it  is  dead,  141 ;  is  not  even  present 
to  the  thinker  until  he  has  set  it  forth,  out  of  himself,  150;  indepen- 
dent, of  all  mental  processes  the  most  difficult  —  habit,  tradition,  and 
reverence  for  antiquity  unite  to  forbid  it,  192. 

Thoughts  must  be  expressed  to  have  influence,  244 ;  may  be  expressed 
most  forcibly  in  things,  244. 

Thucydides  arraigns  the  Greeks  as  falsifiers  and  perjurers,  255. 

Thurston,  Robert  H.,  on  the  tremendous  power  wielded  by  the  mechanic,  183. 

Toledo,  0.,  Manual  Training  School,  inception  of,  due  to  the  generosity  of 
the  late  Jesup  W.  Scott  and  his  three  sons,  358 ;  connected  with  the 
public  high-school,  358,  359 ;  students  of,  consist  of  both  sexes,  359 ; 
the  course  for  girls  in,  359. 

Toledo,  Spain,  woollen  manufactures  of,  transferred  by  the  exiled  Moors  to 
Tunis,  279. 

"  Tom-all-alones  "  in  "  Bleak  House  " — social  philosophy  of,  309. 

Tool  practice,  quickens  the  intellect,  1 14 ;  engenders  a  thirst  for  wisdom, 
114;  history  of,  in  England  confirms  this  view,  114;  the  foundation  of 
James  Watt's  culture,  119;  George  Stephenson's  career  an  illustra- 
tion of  the  intellectual  effect  of,  119 ;  testimony  of  the  Director  of  the 
Artisans'  School  at  Rotterdam,  Holland,  as  to  intellectual  effect  of,  121 ; 
testimony  of  Dr.  Woodward,  Director  of  the  St.  Louis  Manual  Training 
School,  as  to  intellectual  effect  of,  121 ;  testimony  of  M.  Victor  Delia 
Vos,  Director  of  the  Imperial  Technical  School,  Moscow,  as  to  intellect- 
ual effect  of,  121  ;  effect  of,  as  shown  by  the  experience  of  the  Me- 
chanic Art  School  at  Komotau,  Bohemia,  122. 


INDEX.  401 

Tools,  influence  of,  upon  modern  civilization,  9;  represent  the  steps  of  hu- 
man progress,  10;  the  great  civilizing  agency  of  the  world,  11; 

Townships  of  New  England,  their  establishment  logical,  303. 

Tradition,  tyranny  of,  124. 

Tribune,  The  Chicago  Daily,  Henry  D.  Lloyd's  history  of  the  United  States 
land  grants  in,  311-313. 

Truth,  the  struggle  after,  eliminates  selfishness  from  the  mind,  233 ;  the 
love  of,  more  natural  than  the  love  of  the  false,  233 ;  the  heroes  of  all 
the  ages  honor  it,  234 ;  becomes  conspicuous  through  efforts  to  suppress 
it,  283. 

Tulane,  Paul,  founder  of  the  Tulane  University  of  New  Orleans,  La.,  347. 

Tulane  University,  manual  training  a  prominent  feature  in  the,  347. 

Turkish  Empire,  story  of  its  origin  through  the  art  of  forging,  61. 

Tweedism,  what  made  it  possible  in  the  city  of  New  York,  309. 

Types,  through  the  medium  of,  the  voice  of  genius  is  destined  to  reach  to 
the  ends  of  the  earth,  282. 

U. 

United  States,  the,  not  at  the  front  in  the  race  of  nations  for  industrial  su- 
premacy, 203  ;  comparison  of  imports  and  exports  of,  with  those  of  Eng- 
land, 203;  industrially  ill-balanced,  204;  suffering  from  a  paucity  of 
skilled  labor,  204 ;  educational  system  of,  very  poor,  as  shown  by  the 
statistics  of  railway  and  commercial  disasters,  224;  educational  system 
of,  as  poor  morally  as  mentally,  224 ;  neglect  of  education  by,  the  most 
astonishing  fact  in  the  history  of,  235 ;  a  scientific  educational  system 
forced  upon  the  South  by,  would  have  averted  the  war  of  rebellion,  237 ; 
could  not  protect  property  in  slaves,  238 ;  social  conditions  in,  similar 
to  those  prevailing  in  Europe,  307 ;  illiteracy  in,  307  ;  increase  of  illiter- 
acy in,  307 ;  every  sixth  man  who  votes  in,  is  unable  to  write  his  name, 
307;  land  system  of,  rivals  that  of  England  in  injustice,  311;  history 
of  the  land  system  of,  by  Henry  D.  Lloyd,  in  the  Chicago  Tribune,  311— 
313  ;  the  sentiment  of  patriotism  justifiable  only  in,  317  ;  the  soldier  of, 
is  a  citizen  of,  317,  318. 

Universities,  the  men  who  have  transformed  the  face  of  the  earth  came 
not  from  the,  185;  Bacon's  caustic  remark  in  relation  to  the,  185;  on 
Bacon's  plan  would  have  united  science  and  art,  and  so  have  promoted 
progress,  185. 

V. 

Valerius,  died  so  poor  that  he  was  buried  at  the  public  charge,  264. 

Venus,  made  the  wife  of  Vulcan,  the  God  of  Fire,  70. 

Von  Kaas,  Rittmeister  Claussen,  lectures  on  the  subject  of  manual  training 
in  Germany,  362. 

Vulcan,  the  God  of  Fire,  given  Venus  to  wife,  and  made  the  father  of  Cu- 
pid, 70. 


INDEX. 


W. 

Waif,  the,  description  of,  by  John  Morrissey,  308 ;  destined  to  become  an 
equal  citizen,  309 ;  made  Tweedism  in  New  York  City  possible,  309 ; 
pollutes  the  fountains  of  justice,  309,  310 ;  menaces  the  government  with 
destruction,  310;  permitted  by  the  hundred  thousand  to  develop  into  a 
savage,  310 ;  power  of,  to  tax  civilized  people,  310. 

Walton,  George  A.,  report  of,  in  regard  to  investigation  of  the  schools  of 
Norfolk  County,  Mass.,  196-199. 

Wars,  modern,  of  European  nations  involve  no  principle,  286. 

Washington  University,  manual  training  department  of,  established  in  1878, 
332,  333 ;  excerpts  from  the  prospectus  of,  1882-83,  showing  the  prog- 
ress of  manual  training  in,  333,  334 ;  founding  of  manual  training  de- 
partment of,  due  to  the  energy  and  foresight  of  Dr.  Woodward  first,  and 
second,  to  the  donations  of  private  citizens,  334,  335. 

Watch  Company,  Elgin  National,  makes  a  thousand  watches  a  day  —  all 
perfect,  87 ;  makes  two  hundred  thousand  watch-screws  in  a  few  min- 
utes, 87. 

Watt,  James,  the  last  link  in  the  chain  of  steam-engine  inventors,  15;  Dr. 
Draper's  eulogy  of,  15 ;  chief  difficulty  of,  in  perfecting  the  steam-en- 
gine, 84,  85 ;  Smeaton's  opinion  that  the  engine  of,  could  not  be  made 
to  work  with  hand-made  tools,  85  ;  sketch  of  the  life  and  career  of,  119, 
120;  a  dull  boy  in  school,  120;  tribute  of  Sir  Walter  Scott  to  the  great- 
ness of,  120;  every  incident  in  the  life  of,  now  eagerly  sought  for,  171. 

Weaving  machinery,  improved,  opposition  to  introduction  of,  in  England, 
178. 

Whitney,  Eli  B.,  inventor  of  the  cotton-gin,  84. 

William  the  Conqueror,  his  appreciation  of  the  importance  of  land  pro- 
prietorship, 311. 

Williams,  Roger,  the  champion  of  absolute  freedom  of  thought  and  speech, 
303. 

Wilson,  Dr.  George,  his  panegyric  on  the  hand,  145. 

Wisdom,  the  power  of  discriminating  between  what  is  true  and  what  is 
false,  152 ;  the  hand  used  as  the  synonym  of,  because  it  is  only  in  the 
concrete  that  the  false  is  sure  of  detection,  152. 

Woman,  tremendous  influence  of,  upon  the  destinies  of  the  human  race, 
125  ;  neglect  of  past  ages  to  educate,  a  crime,  125  ;  education  of,  more 
important  than  that  of  man,  128;  condition  of,  in  a  state  of  savagery, 
249 ;  reform  in  education  must  begin  with,  359 ;  the  education  of,  more 
imperative  than  that  of  man,  359 ;  neglect  of  the  education  of,  among 
the  ancients,  360;  degradation  of,  in  the  Middle  Ages,  360;  contempt 
of,  by  Bacon,  Swift,  Addison,  and  Johnson,  360 ;  Shakespeare's  tribute 
to,  360;  Raskin's  worship  of,  360;  the  purity  of  the  home  and  the  ef- 


INDEX  403 

ficiency  of  the  school  depends  upon,  361 ;  in  the  van  where  the  imagi- 
nation leads,  361 ;  less  selfish  than  man,  361 ;  intuitions  of,  truer,  ideals 
higher,  sense  of  justice  finer,  and  of  duty  stronger  than  those  of  man, 
361 ;  the  teacher  of  man  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave,  361. 

Woodward,  Dr.  C.  M.,  Director  of  the  St.  Louis  Manual  Training  School, 
121 ;  statement  of,  as  to  intellectual  effect  of  manual  training,  121 ;  his 
account  of  the  origin  of  the  St.  Louis  school,  333. 

Wood-turning  laboratory,  radical  change  of,  from  carpentry — from  angles 
to  spherical,  cylindrical,  and  eccentric  forms,  30;  the  value  in  the  arts 
of  the  lathe,  30 ;  its  mythical  origin,  33  ;  its  application  and  uses  among 
the  ancients,  34;  fashionable  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries 
in  England  and  France,  34 ;  purpose  of,  is  not  to  make  turners,  but  to 
educate  boys,  39;  the  machinery  of,  in  motion,  39  ;  pen-picture  of  the 
students  in,  39  ;  the  lesson  in  detail  in,  40  ;  the  students  at  their  lathes 
in,  43  ;  the  instructor  passes  upon  the  work  of  the  class  in,  44. 

Wootz,  or  Indian  steel,  produced  near  Golconda,  and  used  in  the  fabrica- 
tion of  Damascus  blades,  72 ;  millions  of  dollars  expended  in  efforts  to 
produce  the  equal  of,  72. 

Words,  weakness  of,  141 ;  cannot  attain  to  definiteness  save  as  living  out- 
growths of  realities,  150;  easy  to  juggle  with,  and  make  the  worse  ap- 
pear the  better  reason,  224 ;  educational  systems  still  train  in,  rather 
than  in  things,  319,  320. 

Workingman's  School  and  Free  Kindergarten  of  New  York  City,  the  most 
comprehensive  educational  institution  in  the  world,  336  ;  scope  of,  337  ; 
purpose  of,  identical  with  that  of  the  manual  training  school,  337 ; 
methods  of  instruction  in  the,  337,  338. 

Y. 

Yarranton,  Andrew,  according  to  Patrick  Edward  Dove,  was  the  founder  of 
English  political  economy,  175. 

Z. 

Zenophon,  after  conducting  the  retreat  of  the  Ten  Thousand,  led  a  detach- 
ment of  Greeks  on  a  pillaging  expedition,  255. 


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